Claim: Petrol price projected to increase by 9.15% effective June 16, 2025
Source: Africa Focus (X)
Verdict: Misleading
Researched by Nusrat Essah
Posts circulating on social media, particularly X and Facebook, claimed the Chamber of Oil Marketing Companies (COMAC) had announced a 9.15% increase in petrol prices effective June 16, 2025.
GhanaFact found another quote card by JoyNews on June 15, 2025, with the caption: “Petrol prices to drop by up to 2.2%, diesel by 4.3%, and LPG by 3.2% starting Monday, June 16 – COMAC.”
This fact-check will clarify whether COMAC issued two conflicting petrol price projections relative to the date in question.
RelatedNews
Fact-Check
A fuel price increment was expected following Parliament’s passage on June 3, 2025, of a GH¢1 increase in the Energy Sector Recovery Levy. This meant the price of fuel (petrol, diesel) was to go up by GH¢1 per litre following assent to the Bill.
However, on June 13, 2025, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the implementing agency of the new levy, announced a postponement of “the implementation date of the Tariff Interpretation Order (TIO) No. 2025/004 relating the Energy Sector Levies (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1141).”
Explanation for COMAC’s two pricing projections
To verify the claims about the conflicting projection, GhanaFact contacted the Chamber of Oil and Marketing Companies (COMAC) and gathered relevant government announcements.
In an interview with COMAC’s Head of Research and Development, Samuel Wristberg, confirmed that, COMAC announced two projections for the June 16 pricing outlook, explaining that the suspension of the fuel levy was the main difference between the two projections.
Projection 1
“On Thursday, 12th June 2025, we issued our projections ahead of the upcoming pricing window on 16th June. At the time, the Price Build-Up (PBU) published by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) reflected the planned implementation of the Energy Sector Shortfall and Debt Repayment Levy (ESSDRL), which included a GH¢1.00 increase per litre. Based on this, our initial projections indicated a fuel price increase of 9.15% for petrol and 8.28% for diesel,” he said.
Levy implementation postponement and projection 2
“However, on Friday, 13th June 2025, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) officially announced the suspension of the GH¢1.00 ESSDRL increment through a letter to industry, following a directive from the Minister for Finance after consultations with key stakeholders…
“In response, we revised our projections on Saturday, 14th June 2025, based on the updated PBU excluding the levy. The new projections indicated a decline in fuel prices, -2.2% for petrol and -4.3% for diesel…
“The change is directly attributed to the suspension of the GH¢1.00 levy, which had originally driven our upward price projections. Therefore, our earlier communication would have been valid if the GH¢1.00 levy had been implemented as planned,” he stressed.
He also provided a COMAC report titled ‘Pricing Outlook-June 16, 2025’, which outlined expected changes in fuel prices.
According to the report, “Pump prices for petrol, diesel, and LPG are expected to continue declining by around 1%- 2.2%, 1.9%- 4.3%, and 1%- 3.2% respectively.”
From the above, the following points are clear:
- Africa Focus’ flyer was based on Projection 1 by COMAC (issued on June 12, 2025)
- GHOne TV post was also based on the projection 1, a day before the downward revision of prices.
- JoyNews’ flyer was based on Projection 2 (issued on June 14, 2025)
- Since projection 2 negated projection 1, Africa Focus at the time of sharing their flyer (June 15, 2025) misinformed the public about COMAC’s projections.
Verdict
Therefore, the claim that the price of petrol was expected to increase by 9.15% is Misleading.
Misleading per GhanaFact’s ratings meter is when elements of the claim are accurate but presented in a way that is misleading.
