The Chamber of Petroleum Consumer (COPEC) has officially requested a meeting with the finance minister to find ways of scrapping the recent increment in the energy sector levy which was recently outlined in the mid- year budget review.

The finance minister, Ken Ofori Atta last week announced an increase in the energy sector levy to enable the government raise more revenue to settle the legacy debts in the energy sector.

It is expected with this announcement to put further burden on the consumer with prices of petroleum prices and commodities rising.

COPEC has raised an alarm on this decision sending a petition to parliament to reconsider the increment in the energy sector levy.

Executive Secretary of COPEC Duncan Amoah says they will explore other legal means to address their concerns if an amicable solution is not found.

“We have dispatched an official communication with them detailing the need to have a meeting with them urgently.

At the said meeting we are hoping that we will be able to at least get them to appreciate the need to clamp down on the illegal fuel situation that is getting out of hand in Ghana currently.

As we speak almost 25% of fuel that is sold in the country is coming from illegal sources what that means is that government does not get any revenue whatsoever so if all that revenue is made to go into individual pockets.

It becomes unsustainable to increase fuel prices further because of the same revenue discussion.

We are quite hopeful that this dialogue will probably yield the needed results but like we indicated if it doesn’t we will resort to other legitimate process” he concluded.