The Association of LPG retailers will embark on a strike across the nation on Monday over the government’s plan to implement the cylinder re-circulation policy.
This means consumers will not be able to buy the product at various retail outlets from Monday.
The Operators, who are opposed to the policy, say their businesses will collapse if the government goes ahead to roll out the policy.
In a Citi News interview, Kofi Azanku who speaks for the President of the LPG Operators said they have been compelled to take this action because the government has failed to address their concerns.
“Monday, as indicated earlier, the Ghana LPG Operators Association together with marketers will withdraw their services following an ultimatum given to government which they have failed to comply with or respond to. We will be laying down our tools. We have tabled our concerns which we have not received any favourable response from the government.”
International firms behind re-circulation programme
The Ghana LPG Operators Association had alleged that some giant multinational companies were behind the government’s implementation of the Cylinder Re-circulation Model of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) distribution.
The Association has consistently maintained that the policy will cripple all local LPG businesses if the government goes ahead with the implementation.
President Nana Akufo-Addo ordered the implementation of the Cylinder Re-circulation Model of LPG distribution in October 2017, following the public outcry in the wake of the massive explosion at an LPG filling station at Atomic Junction.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra, the President of the LPG Operators Association, Torgbi Adaku V, insisted that the policy was not a panacea to explosions at LPG filling stations.
In the Association’s view, better vigilance by the Fire Service and the NPA were better safety options than the Cylinder Re-circulation Policy, which they say was abandoned in a previous incarnation in the 1980s.