Kan Dapaah deceives Ghanaians on fuel prices -Asante

The minority spokesman on energy and MP for Amenfi West, Abraham Kofi Asante, has described the C53 billion quoted by the sector minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah as being savings made from the fall in the world market price of crude oil as a “complete miscalculation of figures.”

He said the figure quoted “is too much on the lower side and asked the government to come up with the appropriate figures.”

Mr. Asante said if the fall in crude oil price has been by 31 per cent on the world market, the government should also have reduced the price of petrol by 12.85 per cent and diesel by 17.9 per cent.

He explained that if the price of petrol is calculated at C300 per litre and the total consumption stands at 60.7 billion litres per month on the average, then the savings made should stand at about C19 billion a month.

Mr. Asante also said that if diesel consumed is 65 billion litres a month at C350 a litre, savings on it should also be around C23 billion per month.

He said the government should be saving not less than C50 billion a month from all the petroleum products, adding that what the government has saved since the prices in crude oil fell on the world market is more than C300 billion. He said the figures are in the public domain and called on the government to rectify the disparities in the figures quoted to the public through the media.

Mr. Asante said the majority rejected the motion, which the minority brought before the House calling on it to reduce the prices of petroleum products because they were scared of the loopholes, which would have been made public.

He questioned the reason why the government started recording windfalls only when the prices of petroleum products were going down on the world market.

Mr. Asante also wondered if there is any measurable degree of justification in the calculation and reiterated the call on government to come up with the right figures.