The Managing Director for the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST), Mr Edwin Provencal, has said management remain committed to strategically position the company to be profitable and constantly generate revenue for the country.
According to Mr Provencal, BOST remained efficient and would record unprecedented revenues in 2022 as the figures recorded so far in the third quarter were staggering.
“As of now, the trade revenues alone has surpassed the total amount of revenue generated in 2021. We have currently generated GH¢1.3 billion which is more than the GH¢1.1 billion total revenue recorded in 2021,” he stated in an interview with the Ghanaian Times.
He added that the company was expecting to make about GH¢ 1.8 billion by end of 2022 which would be the second highest since the company was established in 1993.
“BOST is on its way to taking its rightful strategic place in this country by creating value which would be executed for the benefit of all,” he stated.
He said, since taking over in 2019 they had taken steps to turn the dwindling fortunes of the company around for the better by making it profitable.
He said, BOST after 11 years of recording losses made outstanding turnaround by generating GH¢168.8 million profit after tax last year.
He added that, they had managed to clear about 80 percent of the debt in their accounts since they took over.
The company he said, had also utilised the BOST margin to improve infrastructure and perform repair works that had contributed to the increase in revenue.
BOST margin is a tax imposed on petroleum products used to cover the maintenance and operating cost of petroleum product depots and undertaking expansion programmes at depots which is currently six pesewas per litre.
Prior to the increment to six pesewas in 2020 following a request by Mr Provencal, the BOST margin had been at three pesewas per litre since 2011.
“In 2011 the BOST margin was at three pesewas and in dollar terms was 0.02 dollars which is two cents. It has remained three pesewas until 2020 where the dollar value had moved from 0.02 dollars to 0.0054 dollars which means that it has moved from 2 cents to 0.58 cents, therefore losing over 75 per cent of its value,” he stated.
“So in 2020, I advocated that they should give me a BOST margin equivalent to the 2011 dollar value which should be 12 pesewas because all our inputs are imported but only received six pesewas,” he explained.
That notwithstanding, he said the BOST margin had contributed to the growth of the company as they were able to repair their infrastructure.
He said the company had now repaired 12 of the 15 tanks that had broken down, fixed the pipelines, brought the pipelines from Houston, repaired all the barges and back on track, fixed the Buipejerty, while all old equipment had been taken out and replaced with new ones.
He added that, they also bought some loading arms which had reduced the loading time reduced from seven days to two days.
“The inter depot loading time has reduced from four hours to one hour 30 minutes. Our revenue earning assets has increased from 34 percent to 95 percent. The marine assets, jumped from two million to 14 million because of the repairs we have done with the BOST margin,” he stressed.
The company he said, had also started exporting to Mali with the export increasing from 0.3 percent in 2019 to six percent in 2020 following infrastructure repairs.
He said, with the BOST margin, they had been able to fix the marine assets, which saw revenue from marine transport jump almost seven times from 2020 to 2021.
“Our product sale from 2020 to 2021 had jumped more than twice and we could not have done the repairs without the BOST margin. BOST margin is contributing to revenue because without maintaining the infrastructure, we cannot generate revenue,” he stated.
BY MICHAEL D. ABAYATEYE
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