The Minority in Parliament has accused the Akufo-Addo administration of shortchanging Ghanaians with the recent increase in prices of petroleum products.
Starr News’ checks at some fuel stations Tuesday showed that a litre of diesel and petrol are being sold at GH¢5.18 and GH¢5.14 respectively.
The increase is in line with predictions by the Institute of Energy Securities (IES) over the weekend that fuel prices would go beyond GH¢5 to a litre based on its research on the second pricing window.
Prices of LPG has also been reviewed upwards.
Addressing the media in parliament, the Minority Spokesperson on Energy Adam Mutawakilu said the increase was “unfortunate.” According to him, it was necessitated by the depreciation of the Cedi to the US dollar and other major international currencies.
The Cedi has recorded massive losses against the dollar, the latest being last week where it hit GH¢4.97 to the dollar. It followed a July fall where it traded at GH¢4.8250 to the dollar depreciating cumulatively, by 5.3 per cent in the first six months, compared to 3.3 per cent in the first half of 2017 despite significant increments of weekly dollar sales to local banks in the country.
“And the government, therefore, is transferring their incompetence in the management of the cedi to the ordinary consumer to pay,” said Mutawakilu and that the Minority has a problem with it.
“Dr Bawumia indicated how they will manage the economy better than the NDC, but when the fundamentals are weak exchange rate will expose you and that’s what is being exposed. We shouldn’t be surprised that it wouldn’t be long there’ll be an increment,” he stated.
Calling for the scrapping of the special petroleum tax, the Damango lawmaker said the government is being insensitive in the tax buildup in the petroleum pricing. “We the Minority have continued to call on the government to scrap the special petroleum tax because it has outlived its usefulness.”
Fuel Price Increase Won’t Affect Transport Fares – GPRTU
The National Chairman of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) Kwame Kuma assured that the 0.2 per cent increment on fuel prices will not cause an upward adjustment in transport fares.
The recent increase, he said was nowhere near the agreed-on 10 per cent threshold to warrant an increase in transport fares.
He told Accra based radio station Okay FM that even though the increase will reflect in a marginal decrease in the quantity of fuel purchased at the pumps by drivers it would not have any direct impact on fares in the country.
“It is just a 0.2 per cent increment, so there is no way this is going to affect transport fares, as the increase has yet not reached the 10 per cent threshold as per arrangements we have with the Ministry of Transport”, said the GPRTU boss.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
