The National Petroleum Authority has confirmed what the public has been suspecting for years – that there is a cartel of illicit fuel smugglers whose operations have been bleeding the national coffers.
The NPA has however denied knowledge that the cartel has most of its members as staff of State petroleum administration entities like the NPA and the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport Company.
“Yes there are existing cartels that operate in the illegal fuel distribution….but I cannot say I know anybody from the NPA or any other state agency involved. If anybody has such evidence he can come forward with it,” said Anny Osabutey, Communications Manager at the NPA.
Mr. Osabutey had made the admission on Accra based 3fm this afternoon. He made the revelation while struggling to justify the NPA’s counter-claim to revelation by the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD) that the country is losing billions to illegal petroleum trafficking activities.
According to CBOD in its 2019 industry report, between 2015 and 2018, the country lost more than GHC 2.79 billion to tax evasion and other nefarious activities in the downstream petroleum sector.
Per the revelation, the losses incurred on petroleum-based products occurred in the form of unreported tax receipts.
However, in reaction, the NPA claims that GHC 952 million has rather accrued to the country through its clampdown on illegal fuel trade in the same period.
Interestingly, the NPA could not give concrete evidence to show that rather than the over GHC 2.79 billion loss that the CBOD reported, the country has made accruals of GHC 952million.
Anny Osabutey claimed in the 3fm interview that the amount had been deduced from the same CBOD industry report which said almost GHC 2.8billion had been lost to nefarious activities.
“People take export products and some of them they don’t put taxes on them, and because they export them to neighbouring countries like Burkina, Mali, Togo and the rest, the products do not get to those countries, so they reverse and then dump them here, that’s why it is called dumping, so taxes and revenue that is due the country does not come,” the NPA communications officer said.