The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) has expressed its disappointment at the President’s refusal to take taxes off the prices of fuel.
It would be recalled that the President, Nana Akufo-Addo on the occasion of the May Day told agitating workers and members of the Ghana Private Road Transport Users (GPRTU) that government could not take off the taxes imposed on petroleum products because that would cost the country some Ghc4 million.
Speaking on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, the Monitoring and Research Officer at COPEC, Sampson Addae shared his disappointment at the president’s stance on the issue.
Mr Addae however admitted that prices of crude oil on the world market have become relatively stable following recent hikes on the commodity.
This notwithstanding, Mr Addae supported the GPRTU quest to increase transport prices by some 20 percent.
“Yes, it is true that world market prices have become stable. It is even declining unlike when the war first broke out. For our local fuel pricing formula, it is not only determined by world pricing markets alone. It is also determined by the depreciation of the cedi and the tax component on the price buildup. Out of the three, if one is stable or declining, it does not mean that the other two are also the same or should follow suit,” he said.
Mr Addae continued to say that “in the last2 or 3 weeks, the cedi was stable but now it has started to depreciate. It is affecting the BDCs who convert the cedi to the dollar to go and buy the fuel. So sometimes the prices in dollars would be stable but because the cedi is depreciating, you would have to add more dollars to get the fuel.”
On the taxes on petroleum taxes, the Monitoring and Research Officer explained that “the President has maintained that the taxes would not be removed. We [at COPEC] were disappointed at that because, the Finance Minister came to Parliament to tell us that what we want from a barrel of crude that we bought was 63 dollars per barrel. When the government raises that amount, it will be a substantial amount to embark on all its project. We have now gone from 63 dollars to over 100 dollars per barrel. It means that we are getting a windfall. So what we are saying is that take 20 dollars out of the 40 dollars to stabilise the price for us.”
He said it was quite strange that the government would say that it cannot take the taxes off fuel.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
