A former Board Chairman of the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), Mr Henry Akwaboah, has called on the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to begin a rigorous exercise to clean the oil marketing space to sanitise the sector.

According to him, it is time to ensure that only responsible companies are allowed to participate in the sector, which contributes about 15 per cent to the government’s revenue.

His call follows GRA’s notice to OMCs who have defaulted on paying taxes, to quickly settle their tax liabilities by Friday, 3 December 2021 or risk having their names published and subsequently prosecuted. 

Speaking to Class Business, Mr Akwaboah said: “I’m quite surprised that they will wait for this situation to snowball before raising the red flag”.

“For example, why do you even allow an OMC that has defaulted to arrange a payment plan and continue to load products from the depots?” he asked.

“Every OMC is required to collect taxes in the price buildup on behalf of the government and pay to the GRA every 21 days. Failure to honour this obligation is a criminal act and should be dealt with as such.”

In his view: “I think the time has come for the National Petroleum Authority to begin a rigorous exercise to clean the entire OMCs space”, and the issuance and renewal of licences “need to take a different shape and form going forward”.

“Under the guise of deregulation, Ghanaian content and Ghanaian participation; we’ve seen a lot of companies being licensed, coming into the sector and flooding the industry.

“In the process, we’ve seen standards in the industry getting compromised with each passing day. We need responsible entities in this space…it is time now to ensure only responsible entities are allowed to participate in the industry.”