The government is set to suspend the GH¢1-per-litre Energy Sector Shortfall and Debt Repayment Levy (D-Levy) on diesel for October and November, Citi Business News has gathered, as part of measures to maintain a GH¢2-per-litre intervention amid a projected surge in diesel prices.
Under the new arrangement, the reduction in statutory margins on diesel will be lowered from GH¢2 to GH¢1 per litre, with the remaining GH¢1 provided through the temporary suspension of the D-Levy. This means motorists will continue to benefit from a total GH¢2-per-litre intervention on diesel—GH¢1 through reduced statutory margins and another GH¢1 through the suspended levy. The intervention maintains the government-industry burden-sharing arrangement introduced on April 16, 2026.
The development comes as fuel prices are projected to rise sharply in the first pricing window of October.
COPEC Projects Sharp Increases
The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) is projecting a 5.21% increase in petrol prices and a 22.91% rise in diesel prices from Thursday, October 1, 2026. In a statement issued on Tuesday, September 29, and signed by its Executive Secretary, Duncan Amoah, COPEC attributed the expected increases largely to higher international petroleum prices and a marginal depreciation of the Ghana cedi against the US dollar.
COPEC projects the average retail price of petrol to rise from GH¢16.90 to GH¢17.78 per litre, while diesel is expected to increase from GH¢18.24 to GH¢22.42 per litre. The Chamber said crude oil prices rose from $103.07 to $124 per barrel during the pricing window, while the cedi depreciated by about 1.20% against the dollar, moving from an average interbank rate of GH¢11.4830 to GH¢11.6211. The international Free on Board (FOB) price of petrol also increased by 4.26%, from $1,251.07 to $1,304.39 per metric tonne, while diesel’s FOB price increased by 8.51%, from $1,404.73 to $1,524.22 per metric tonne.
LPG prices are also expected to increase to GH¢15.68 per kilogramme after its international FOB price rose from $712.43 to $777.59 per metric tonne.
Transport Fares Already Up 8%
The anticipated fuel price increases have already contributed to an 8% increase in transport fares, which took effect on Saturday, September 26, 2026. Under the new arrangement, a standard intra-city fare of GH¢5 increased to GH¢5.50, while passengers who previously paid GH¢10 now pay GH¢11. At the higher end of the intra-city schedule, a GH¢30 fare rose to GH¢32.40, while the highest listed fare of GH¢34 increased to GH¢36.80.
For shared taxis, passengers travelling up to four kilometres saw fares rise from GH¢2.60 to GH¢2.90, while a journey of up to 40 kilometres increased from GH¢18.70 to GH¢20.20. Inter-city journeys were also affected: a GH¢25 fare rose to GH¢27, while a GH¢100 fare increased to GH¢108.
The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) and the Ghana Road Transport Coordinating Council (GRTCC) attributed the increase to changes in the ex-pump prices of petroleum products, rising spare parts costs, vehicle maintenance expenses and other operational costs. However, the unions acknowledged that government intervention on the price of diesel had helped to moderate the extent of the increase.
What is the D-Levy?
The Energy Sector Shortfall and Debt Repayment Levy (D-Levy) was introduced under the Energy Sector Levies (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1135), consolidating several existing levies—including the Energy Debt Recovery Levy, the Energy Sector Recovery Levy (Delta Fund), the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy and the Sanitation and Pollution Levy—into a single levy.
The levy was designed to service the legacy debts taken over by government following the closure of the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme and the winding up of ESLA PLC, as well as to cater for energy sector shortfalls. The D-Levy currently stands at GH¢1 per litre on diesel.
The government’s decision to now suspend the D-Levy—rather than fund the entire intervention through margin reductions—represents a shift in how the relief is financed. Under the previous arrangement, the full GH¢2 reduction was taken from diesel margins. The latest mechanism involves a GH¢1 reduction in the D-Levy and another GH¢1 reduction in the margins.
The margin components affected by the intervention include the Primary Distribution Margin, the Unified Petroleum Price Fund (UPPF), the fuel marking margin and the BOST margin. These charges are used to pay service providers responsible for moving petroleum products across the country, maintaining fuel quality standards and ensuring uniform pricing nationwide.
NPP Warns of Downstream Debt Crisis
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has warned that the government’s approach to funding the diesel intervention risks creating a fresh energy sector debt crisis. In a statement issued in September 2026, the NPP Policy Committee on Energy said the GH¢2-per-litre intervention was being funded by suspending statutory margins that support the petroleum downstream sector, even as government continued to collect taxes and levies on petroleum products.
The Committee estimated that the arrangement was draining more than GH¢500 million every month from the downstream sector, rising to nearly GH¢683 million when the implied support to the UPPF is factored in. “By our estimate, GH¢2.076 billion has already been withheld from BOST, the distributors, the fuel markers and the UPPF across April, May, August and September 2026. None of it has been replaced,” the statement said.
The NPP cautioned that prolonged withholding of these statutory margins could result in deferred maintenance, unpaid supplier bills and institutional borrowing, steadily building a new debt burden within the petroleum industry. “In plain words, Government is accumulating debt to BOST and other key players under the guise of ‘intervention’,” the Committee said.
The party recommended that government suspend taxes and levies on fuel instead of withholding the statutory margins that keep the downstream sector running.
Sustained Pressure on Consumers
The government’s decision to maintain the GH¢2-per-litre intervention on diesel is expected to cushion consumers from part of the projected increase in diesel prices, while shifting the source of the intervention from statutory margins to a temporary suspension of the D-Levy.
The intervention, first introduced on April 16, 2026, saw the government absorb GH¢2 per litre on diesel and GH¢0.36 per litre on petrol as a temporary one-month measure amid rising global crude prices. It has since been extended multiple times, with the NPA confirming in September 2026 that the government had spent more than GH¢1 billion cushioning consumers from rising fuel prices.
The Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Godwin Edudzi Kudzo Tameklo, said without the President’s intervention, the price of fuel would have been “not less than GH¢28 per litre,” while the intervention had helped keep the price below GH¢20 per litre.
The arrangement is expected to apply for October and November, after which the government’s approach to the diesel intervention could be reviewed. With international oil prices remaining volatile and the cedi under continued pressure, the sustainability of the intervention—and the fiscal and downstream-sector risks it carries—will remain a key concern in the months ahead.
