A private revenue assurance firm; Strategic Mobilization Ghana Limited (SML) has raked in over one billion Ghana Cedis in revenue mobilization to the State from 16 out of the 20 petroleum depots in the country within ten months.
This adds up to the huge increase in revenue generated from the downstream petroleum sector due to improved monitoring of in-flows and out-flows at the various oil marketing company depots across the country.
Speaking during a tour of the OMCs in Tema, Managing Director of SML Christian Tetteh Sottie the achievement is phenomenal as it came at a time that effects of the covid-19 pandemic on economic activities was at its peak.
According to him, between June 2020 to March 2021 slowed economic activity as a result of the Covid-19 led to a gross decrease in consumption of petroleum products in the country.
He said: “Between June 2020 and March 2021 there were restrictions on social gatherings so people could not travel. Our borders had been closed so no movement of vehicles outside the country and yet there was significant increase in revenue at the Petroleum downstream sector due to effective monitoring.”
Mr. Sottie added that through effective monitoring with the state of the arts equipment; a first of its kind in the world, SML has recorded higher volumes of petroleum lifts from its depots culminating into increased revenue for the country
Mr. Sottie said hitherto, the government of Ghana was making an average of some 350 million Cedis annually as import taxes on petroleum products from the depots in the country; but the situation has changed after the introduction of the new monitoring system.
Head of Engineering at SML, Hamdan Abukari said the monitoring system is an end to end electronic system that gives real time account and data to the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Customs Division of the GRA. He says since the introduction of the monitoring system, the volume of petroleum products recorded has increased by 752.4 million litres.
According to Mr. Abukari, there are four depots that are yet to be tapped into the system because they are not operational.
He averred that the monitoring system will surely help address the discrepancies in figures from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GTA), the depots and Customs who manages the sector.
He mentioned that the monitoring system is eliminating loses in the Petroleum downstream sector and helping government realise the expected revenue to enhance development.
