The cost of fuel at the pumps has seen yet another increase, pushing a litre of diesel to GH¢13 and that of petrol to GH¢11 per litre.

This has again triggered public uproar, as transport fares are also expected to go up again.

But Head of Communications at the NPA, Abdul-Kudus Mohammed, tells Citi News that the Authority has the delicate job of balancing all competing interests to ensure that both dealers and consumers are adequately protected.

“The critical role we have to be ensuring is to keep the OMCs in business to be able to recoup their investments and to protect the consumer so that they are not overcharged. So we play this critical balance and regulate pricing to ensure that Both the supplier and consumer are traded fairly.”

The average price of petrol and diesel at the pumps currently stands at GH¢12.282 after selling at about GH¢6.5 in January.

This was after petrol and diesel crossed the GH¢10 and GH¢12 per litre marks in June 2022.

Deputy Energy Minister, William Owuraku Aidoo says the Russia-Ukraine war and the depreciation of the Ghanaian cedi should be blamed for the surge in petroleum prices in Ghana.

Mr. Aidoo said the government is unable to do much about the prices due to the deregulated regime for pricing petroleum prices in the country.

Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, the Deputy Minister said government will do its permissible best to mitigate the plight of Ghanaians.

“Sanctions and boycotts on petroleum exports from Russia, a major exporter especially to Europe, are reducing availability even further and intensifying upward pressure on fuel prices. Under the current deregulated regime in Ghana where government is not responsible for determining the prices of petroleum products, prices on the global market and the depreciation of the Ghana cedi against the US dollar are passed on directly to the end-consumer,” he said.