National Petroleum Authority (NPA) Chief Executive, Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid has assured Ghanaians of government’s efforts to ameliorate the effect of the rising prices of petroleum products at the pumps in Ghana.
According to him, government is going to heavily sacrificed as well as NPA, the downstream regulator to cushion Ghanaians.
He said government is aware of the pains Ghanaians are going through due to the rising cost of fuel and is taking steps to ameliorate the effects on them.
A litre of petrol and diesel currently sells between GHS9.30 and GHS11.70.
As of 16:50 GMT, Wednesday, WTI was trading at $114 while Brent sold at $120.8
There have been calls for the government to abolish some of the taxes on petroleum products with the latest coming from the Trade Union Congress (TUC).
Some portals have reported that government officials, at a meeting with transport operators, have agreed to scrap four tax components on the petroleum price build ups but checks at the Energy Ministry proved otherwise.
The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, is expected to hold a press conference on Thursday, where he would announce several measures the government is putting in place to address the challenges the country’s economy is facing.
During a visit to the Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, as part of his familiarization tour of the Region, the NPA boss, Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, said: “There is going to be heavy sacrifices on the part of the government, NPA and everybody so that together, we can move our country forward.”
He intimated that the total amount of tax that goes to the central government on a litre of fuel is around GHS1.90 which may not be that significant to the individual consumers given the recent frequent rising cost of fuel on the international market.
On the flip side, he said, “This will be a huge revenue loss to the government because that amounts to GHS4 billion and over on government revenue yet everybody wants their road to be tarred.”
Dr. Abdul-Hamid, however, alluded to genuine demands by Ghanaians on the government to provide one facility or the other for the people albeit at the same time that the government would be bleeding from its revenue points.
The Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, who was happy about the visit, said the space to manage NPA fuel pricing is difficult especially “when we were expecting crude oil prices around $61 and now we are looking at $120 per barrel.”
He said such a situation becomes very difficult and a lot of Ghanaians do not seem to know or appreciate it.
“All the taxes that the government has put in place are very little. You have a problem with such a situation whether to take off these taxes and stop development or keep it and do development and people will cry.
“You should find a way to get our message directly to the people for them to know that in the budget is only $60 but currently, the price is $120. If we decide to go and borrow money or cushion Ghanaians, no matter what, we will still pay! We are going to pay!”
He added that “let Ghanaians know how prices are changing and how it is affecting the real price that we need to pay; if you cannot buy the petrol there should be alternative to use as it is done in other countries.
“We, at a Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), we do acknowledge the problem that you have been encountering, such as illegal bunkering of petroleum products; you need to come and visit these communities and then engage them rather than arresting them so that the other people will know that what they are doing is wrong,” Mr Darko-Mensah said.
“If the NPA dissociates themselves on this issue, it will continue to come up. If you engage and invest in some kind of corporate social responsibility programmes, it will do us a lot of good,” he said.
Responding, the NPA boss announced that this year’s Consumer’s Week would be held in Takoradi, “so we will come back and do proper engagement with the people.”
