The Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Marketers Association of Ghana is urging Ghanaians not to patronize the Cylinder Recirculation Model (CRM) of LPG distribution.
The Association said there is no transparency in such system because customers would not be privy to the quantity of LPG in the cylinder.
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has authorized some petroleum marketing companies to start the distribution of filled bottles of LPG under the CRM.
The authorization, which went into effect on Friday, July 1, 2024, allows bottling plants to fill cylinders and sell them to the public through exchange points.
The CRM is a distribution system in which a consumer brings an empty cylinder to an exchange point in return for a filled cylinder, and the empty one is taken to a bottling plant, filled, and brought back for pick up by other consumers.
Reacting to the issue on Ghanaian Kitchen hosted by the ace Gospel Musician, Emilia Arthur, which is shown on TV ZYX on Sundays at 3pm, the President of the Association Raphael Bedi
said “with the current system, even if you have GH¢10 you can buy gas and that is what we want”.
“Our gas stations are of international standard and some countries admire what we do here. Even Togo admires us because in Togo, that is how it it…you can buy anything you like and we feel that is good because it will encourage people to use gas”.
Mr. Bedi said “how can you make sure the GH¢100 they said it in is actually what is in? For the ones we have, the customer can see what he or she is buying”.
“For our stations, people come with big cylinders to buy GH¢20, GH¢30, GH¢40. You buy what you can afford but not to be forced to buy what you cannot afford”, he explained.
Mr. Bedi explained that as an association, they have also begun education on the need to buy from them because they are promoting made in Ghana.
“We will not agree. We are doing our adverts to promote the sale of LPG at the gas stations and not the CRM”.
The president said “taxes are killing us because there are so many taxes on LPG which makes it expensive”.
“If the government really want Ghanaians to use gas and stop cutting of trees for charcoal, then the government should have a second look at the taxes on LPG. People are cutting tree which is
also affecting ozone layer and climate change”, he added.
Regulators
Mr. Bedi also complained about the number of institutions that regulate the LPG sector.
“The regulators are too many. We have the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Factories Inspectorate (FI), Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS),
National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Ghana standard authority (GSA) and Atomic Energy. They are too many. We don’t understand. Meanwhile, whatever the NPA needs
is what the other regulators needs. Some do not even take their time with us. We are being harassed”.
Mr. Bedi is calling on the government to take a look at the above since it is affecting their businesses.
