Stick to road map in reducing sulfur content in fuel – Council
Mr. Saeed Kutia Ubeidalah, Vice Chairperson of the Tema District Council of Labour, has asked government to stick to the agreed road map for the implementation of a standard sulfur content of fuel put forward by National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
He made this call on Thursday during the Tema District Council of Labor (TDCL) General Council Meeting held at the Anchor of Hope Catholic Church, Community One, Tema.
According to him, to achieve a cost-effective air quality management system, authorities must address fuel quality issues alongside that of vehicle technology, vehicle maintenance and road/traffic conditions.
“Nobody jumped from 3000 to even 100 let alone 50ppm. They all went through a road map that allowed the system to grow and the cars to phase out. Thus fuel quality, vehicle emissions and their related standards are considered as elements of an integrated fuel quality management strategy,” he said.
He observed that one of the main issues missing out in the whole argument was enforcement of the law “because even the bad laws were not enforced. We heard of the recent contamination of oil on the market. It simply means there is a loophole in the monitoring regime which is always key to any quality standard setting.”
He said this policy if implemented, would only kick TOR out of business because the cars in Ghana do not have the technology to utilize low sulfur content “ so the question is; where will TOR sell its products?”
“That is the major impact because the car system we have will not give us the maximum benefit in terms of low emissions, because most of the countries which adopted this had cars with emission reduction technology fixed into them,” he said.
He observed that for TOR to adjust to this new policy, it will need more resources and time “since this policy will increase Ghana’s import base and the loser here is the worker. This means government cannot achieve its task of increasing the number of local industries if this is not checked.”
He prayed government not to rush in any aspect of its management of the process adding, “There must be well thought out plans so that the implementation would not give problems. If care is not taken we will kill out TOR and somebody will bring worse fuel onto the Ghanaian market.”
Source: GNA