Fuel smuggling lucrative in Bawku Smuggling of refined petroleum products from Ghana to Togo and Burkina Faso through the Bawku District is regarded as the most lucrative business in the municipality. Investigations conducted by New Crusading Guide reporters on the north eastern boarders of Ghana reveal that smuggling of petroleum products across the borders to the neighboring countries is a thriving business that is putting bread and butter on the tables of a large number of families. According to highly placed sources, Bawku takes stock of about ten trucks of tankers every week from the Buipe fuel storage facility. Interestingly, seven out of these supplies find their way into Togo and Burkina Faso through smuggling. The smuggling of fuel has been cushioned by the growing number of fuel stations along the Ghana-Togo and Burkina Faso Borders, in the north eastern boarders of Ghana. Between Pusiga, Ghana’s Border town and Sankasi in Togo, we counted as many as seven fuel stations in that sparsely populated area. These were filling stations that have been registered by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA). According to our sources, previously, people were not allowed to construct filling stations in border towns. This was done to halt fuel smuggling but just after 2008, people started constructing fuel stations in these areas without resistance from the NPA and the other regulating authorities. Between Misiga in Ghana, and Sabong Gari Widana, Kulungungu towards Burkina Faso, there are as much as four filling stations receiving supplies from Ghana and about 90% of stocks are smuggled into Burkina Faso , our sources noted. According to residents in the area, these filling stations are owned by a cartel made up of politicians in high political positions in the area and well connected business people who have been licensed by the National Petroleum Authority. Our sources told us that such smugglings take place in the night where the fuel is cut into huge Jeri-cans and hidden in 207, 204,208 Buses, Articulator, and Tipper trucks and pick ups to cross the border into neighboring Burkina Faso or Togo, where it is sold in foreign currencies. It was also discovered that the operators of these fuel stations along the borders refuse to sell fuel to local drivers in Ghana cedis except in CFA. These are done to acquire more CFA notes to generate additional profits. The smugglers tend to make huge profits on these products when smuggled outside the country due to the differences in exchange rates between the Ghana cedi and the CFA. It was discovered that the price of a gallon of fuel in Ghana and Burkina Faso is slightly higher than a gallon of fuel in Ghana. In Ghana, a gallon of fuel costsGhc90 while the same gallon of fuel is sold at about CFA3000, which is about Ghc 10, so these smugglers make at least GHC1 profit per gallon of fuel smuggled from Ghana and sold in Burkina Faso or Togo. Our sources noted that the fuel smugglers operate only on the out-skirts of the Bawku Municipality where their illicit acts are difficult of curb. Sources noted that these acts are known by the security operatives in the town but much has not been done to halt it due to their political influence. Our sources indicated that owners of these fuel stations along the boarders of Ghana, Togo, and Burkina Faso are either politicians holding various political offices for a political party or are related to politicians in high office making in difficult for the security services to handle. Besides the fuel smuggling, highly subsidised fertilisers allocated by government for supply to poor rural farmers in the district are also smuggled across the borders and sold in the neighboring countries. Some of the farmers interviewed by the investigators confirmed that they do not receive the fertilisers even though government claims it has made available subsidised fertilisers to help them trim their soil and grow their produce. The fertilisers are also smuggled cross the boarders in vehicles and trucks by these well connected political affiliates. Our sources indicated that no ordinary person can engage in such a business since you would be instantly arrested and prosecuted. “We the vulnerable in society are law abiding and do not even have the courage to engage in such deals. Those who are engaging in these acts are the well connected in society and feared by the security. We have complained about these things since 2009 but nothing is being done about it so we have giving up otherwise we will be tagged as opponents and harassed,” the source said. NPA must abolish exploration tour recovery levies A renowned Financial and Economic Journalist in Ghana, Mr Kwabena Adu Koranteng has called on the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to halt the collection of Exploration and Tour debt recovery levies since the purpose for which they are collected are of no relevance now. According to Mr Adu Koranteng, the exploration levy was added to the price of refined petroleum products to allow government generates some revenue to undertake oil exploration activities in Ghana. However that mandate was taken from the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) from 2001. The GNPC was then made a regulator to serve as a referee between the government of Ghana and exploration as well as producing companies . He noted that private oil companies are currently engaged in exploration and production activities with their own capital. “The money they use to undertake to explore and produce are factored in their operational cost and based on that these companies are exempted from other forms of tax such as corporate tax for some years to the detriment of ghana’s development. “This is why some of these oil companies are exempted from corporate tax in their first one or two years of production. So if this is what is happening then the question is why do we continue collecting exploration levy? And what do we use this money for when it is clear that mandate has been taken away from GNPC and giving to the oil producing companies. This amounts to double taxation at the expense of the poor tax payer” he noted. That mandate he said has been given to private oil exploration companies like, Kosmos, Tullow, Anadarko and the rest. GNPC’s mandate is to serve as a regulator. “This means that a regulator who is more or like a referee cannot at the same time be a player in the game. If that is so, then why are they still collecting exploration levy as a tax on petroleum products. It is an insult to the intelligence of Ghanaians. They must stop it and suspend its collection” He said. He noted that when the tax is removed, it will help the price of fuel to reduce. He also told them to account for all collections made as a way of ensuring and promoting transparency. As regards to the TOR debt recovery levy, Kwabena Adu Koranteng said it is not clear how much Tor owes now, because in 2010, the Mills government said it paid all the TOR debts. Besides, TOR is currently not in effective operation so where does the money go. How much is collected every month and how is the debt recovery levy disbursed or used? These are the questions we need to ask our leaders. They want us to pay tax and we also want them to tell us now they use taxpayer’s money in this regard. We want them to abolish these taxes since they are irrelevant to the wellbeing of Ghanaians.
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 18:05:56 +0000