The Minority in Parliament has noted with grave concern, a sit-down strike action declared by the Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) Marketers Association of Ghana, the Ghana LPG Operators Association of Ghana and the Tanker Drivers Association of Ghana resulting in scarcity of LPG at several distribution outlets in some parts of the Country.
According to the Three (3) striking Associations, the sit-down strike has been necessitated by the refusal of Government to heed to their call to resolve certain industry challenges.
Key among these is the almost 6-year ban on granting operating licences for newly constructed LPG service station.
It will be recalled that following the Atomic Gas explosion in 2017, the Cabinet of the Akuffo-Addo/Bawumiah led government placed a ban on the issuance of operating licences for newly constructed LPG service stations including those who have obtained provisional licenses and were in the process of construction with huge financial commitments.
We regret to note that despite several assurances from this Government and the National Petroleum Authority that the much touted Cylinder Recirculation Model (CRM) has rather witnessed unnecessary and avoidable setbacks throwing the whole exercise into chaos.
We are very much aware that the blanket and poorly considered policy to halt the approval of permits including for those who have already acquired provisional licences before the wholesale ban.
Some of those affected had secured loans from financial institutions for construction and have since gone into financial distress with banks and other creditors chasing them to honour their debt obligations.
Taking cognisance of the failure on the part of Government to successfully meet their own timelines in rolling out the Cylinder Recirculation Model, we call on cabinet and the Presisent in particular, to review this blanket and wholesale ban as a matter of urgency whilst ensuring that the necessary safety measures are put in place to guarantee human safety.
We note that the consumption of LPG has been on the decline since January 2022 partly on account of the obnoxious taxes imposed by this Government which will certainly impact the environment negatively.
We therefore call on government as a matter of urgency to do everything possible to resolve this impasse which has the potential of resulting in a major crisis for the economy.
