Government is warning that fuel price will soar if the National Petroleum Authority is forced to honour a recent court order abolishing ex-refinery tax on petroleum products. It is therefore hoping the court will grant its application for stay of execution pending an appeal against the ruling. A statement issued by the Energy Ministry says if the court ruling is allowed to stand the price of premix fuel for example will shoot up by over 100 percent while Liquefied Petroleum Gas will rise by 57 percent. It says Kerosene prices will see over 70 percent increase and petrol by three percent. Two weeks ago, the court ruled in favour of NPP Parliamentary Candidate for Obuasi, Kweku Kwarteng and others who challenged the legality of the ex-refinery differential tax imposed in June 2009. It directed the NPA to pay the accrued surplus, estimated at 661 million cedis into the consolidated fund. But Communications Consultant at the Energy Ministry, Edward Bawa told Joy News the court erred. He maintains government will not allow any attempt to bring untold hardship on poor Ghanaians. The Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority, Mr Alex Mould told Joy FM’s Super Morning Show that the ex-refinery differentials was simply a stabilizing margin that was used to subsidise the prices of LPG, kerosene, premix fuel and other products. “Just to explain how the price build up is set; the price build up is set based on prices at a certain time so the pump price was based on a crude oil price of about $92 [per barrel] which was the average of the latter part of December 2010 price. Prices have now moved from $92 to approximately an average of $110. That means that the consumer is paying at the pump $92 but we have to pay the supplier $110. Now the ex-refinery differential takes care of that,” he stated. Mr Mould said if the judge’s reasoning were to be accepted, it would mean that “If prices of petroleum products go up or go down, we would have to go to Parliament every two weeks for approval …and that is what we are appealing against.” He said abiding by the court order would mean an immediate upward adjustment in fuel prices “from four per cent to 140 per cent because it is a subsidy and this subsidy is a managed subsidy so if you remove it, immediately, we would have to pass to the consumer the actual international price which the price build up is based on; it is not a tax as people understand it, it’s actually a subsidy but this subsidy is a subsidy that the NPA manages and keeps kerosene for example, at a very subsidized price, premix at a very subsidized price; if we remove it we have to charge the actual cost of premix to the fisherman.” Mr Mould explained that the ex-refinery differentials was a small levy put on the ex-pump price and the money accruing from this pooled and relied on prices go up on the international market to stabilize the domestic prices of petroleum products.