The GOIL Company Limited (GOIL) has announced its withdrawal from the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMCs) in response to charges made by the association’s leadership that the government encouraged the company to lower the price of its petroleum products.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, the corporation slammed the AOMCs for making such a claim against it, calling it “gross disrespect.”
“We at GOIL believe that the Association has shown gross disrespect to the company and treated it with contempt and public ridicule and has therefore decided to suspend its membership of the Association immediately,” GOIL said in its statement.
Following public criticism over the country’s high fuel prices, GOIL cut the price of fuel at its pumps by 15 pesewas on December 7, 2021.
The drop came only 24 hours after some commercial drivers in the nation staged a sit-in to demand that the government reduce certain fuel taxes in order to lower the price of the product.
Prior to the announcement of GOIL, President Akufo-Addo met with the heads of commercial public transportation providers to discuss their concerns about the rising cost of gasoline.
The move prompted remarks from the AOMCs, implying that GOIL, whose largest owners are state entities, made the choice owing to government influence.
“GOIL is therefore challenging the Association to provide proof other than the unproven media claims that the company was directed to reduce prices. GOIL also finds it strange and unacceptable that the chairman of AOMC did not find it fit to seek GOIL’s position before coming out with the well-circulated statement, even when the association had advertised for a Board meeting to discuss the same issues and GOI:’s group CEO/MD had earlier spoken to the CEO of AOMC.”
“The allegations that government is interference in the industry is unfounded and baseless. GOIL has the right as any other OMC to determine its prices,” GOIL said in its statement.
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