Juwel Energy not suspended — NPA

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has denied media reports that Juwel Energy Limited has been suspended for allegedly misreporting on gasoline it sold to another company in January 2018.

"Juwel Energy has never been suspended. It has done nothing wrong per our records to be suspended," the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NPA, Mr Alhassan Tampuli, said in an interview with the Daily Graphic at the weekend.

"The issue of Juwel Energy's suspension or ban never arose for consideration because it had done nothing wrong," he emphasised in reaction to an April 17, 2018 Daily Graphic story.

He told the Daily Graphic that it was rather Life Petroleum Limited that was on suspension for allegedly failing to file returns for products it purchased from Juwel Energy.

He explained that Life Petroleum purchased oil products from Juwel Energy but did not file returns as required by law.

Suspended companies
Mr Tampuli listed bulk distribution companies (BDCs) that had been suspended for misreporting and/or failing to report on products lifted as Life Petroleum, Misyl Energy Company Limited, Globex Energy Limited and Petro Afrique.

He listed suspended oil marketing companies (OMCs) as Union Oil Ghana Limited, Excel Oil Company Limited, Unique Oil Company Limited and Agapet Limited.

An April 17, 2018 story published by the Daily Graphic quoted Mr Tampuli as saying the suspended companies might face the risk of losing their licences.

He told the Daily Graphic that the review conducted on the operations of OMCs in the first two months of the year showed that a number of them were guilty of under-declaring or not declaring at all petroleum products loaded on the Ghana Revenue Authority's (GRA's) volume reconciliation forms submitted to the NPA.

Going by GHȻ4.54 per litre of unpaid margins and petroleum products that were not declared by six of the seven suspended companies, about 19,214,850 litres of products valued at GHȻ87.24 million were not made known and so did not attract the required taxes and levies.

"Beyond the suspension, we are going to get them to pay all the taxes and all the levies and margins and then they will pay the penalties involved in the tax evasion.

"We will take them through the process of revocation of licence. We might revoke their licences if they don't have any reasonable explanations for all that have taken place," he stated.

Mr Tampuli said the authority was awaiting the end of the deadline given to the suspended OMCs to reconcile their figures with written explanations, after which it would take steps to retrieve all the money owed the state and possibly start processes to revoke the licences of the OMCs that deserved it.

Writer's email: mabel.baneseh@graphic.com.gh