Ernest Addo writes
The Minister for Energy, Mathew OpokuPrempeh, is yet to respond to a petition from the LPG Marketing Companies Association, which catalogues litany of problems bedeviling that rear-field of investment.
Chiefly amongst their challenges is the fact that “…about one hundred (100) LPG retail outlets at various stages of construction across the country”, which approximates toabout sixty (60) million Ghana Cedis (about ten (10) million US Dollars) worth of investments into the acquisition which were at various stages of completion, prior to the Atomic Junction incident, in October 2017, is in limbo.
“Out of this number, about fourteen (14) of the outlets had been completed and were awaiting pre-commissioning permits from the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), another twenty-one (21) outlets had received Fire permits, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permits, Metropolitan Municipal and District Assembly Development (MMDA) permits as well as NPA Construction permits, and the rest (about 65) had received ‘No Objection’ letters and were at different Regulatory Permitting stages,” the petition a copy of which was intercepted by the New Crusading GUIDE stated.
According to LPG Marketers,much as they are not against such Government directives, “It would be sad to allow our meager and hard-earned resources to go to waste, especially when these investments were made not contrary to the law and regulations but in accordance with existing laws and regulations at the time.”
Subsequently, the LPG Marketers say they have collectively ensured by and large, together with their Regulators that accidents such as what happened on October 2017, incident at Atomic Junction, would not happen again.
“It is worth noting that the bulk of funds for these investments came from loans from the banks which we are paying at high cost to our members. It was therefore only fair that we engage Government and our Regulator to find a reasonable solution to this challenge”, Chairman of the LPG Marketing Companies Association, Malam Bukari Amadu, stated in the petition.
The LPG Marketing Companies argued that, as the new LPG Promotion policy of Government, through the Cylinder Recirculation Model (CRM) has not yet started, it will only be fair to allow their members complete and operate all the outlets under construction, because these same outlets would in future become cylinder exchange points when the CRM is eventually rolled out.
“The LPGMCs are urgently appealing to Government for permission to be allowed to complete all the stations under construction within a specified period and operate them.”
“We are of the view that the CRM policy cannot be implemented successfully without first addressing the question of what happens to our current investments at our retail outlets, investments done in accordance with existing laws and regulations”, the petition, dated 26 April, this year, stated.
Meanwhile, when this paper contacted the LPG Marketing Companies Association to take their views on the petition, they responded that they had sent the petition to the Minister and that it would be in bad faith if they talk to the press before response comes from the Ministry.
Stay tuned for more…
