General News of Wednesday, 22 October 2014

Source: peacefmonline.com

Kwesi Pratt: 2% Reduction in fuel prices useless

Kwesi Pratt, Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper, has registered his displeasure with the fuel price adjustment by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).

Speaking on Peace FM Morning show "Kokrokoo", the seasoned journalist slammed the NPA for reducing fuel prices by only 2 percent.

He claimed that considering the World Price Market, the fuel prices should have gone down by 20% instead of the amount given by the NPA.

Following incessant calls on government to reduce petrol prices, the citizenry were expectant of a drastic reduction in the prices.

Considering the fact that international price of crude oil had dwindled from $109 per barrel to $81 per barrel, Ghanaians were indeed looking out for a steep decline in fuel prices.

But the NPA announced a 2% reduction which has since courted controversy in the nation.

Addressing the issue, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. debunked claims that the NPA determine fuel prices according to calculations in the World Market Price and stressed that the NPA bid for "negotiated prices."

To him, the new adjustments do not make any huge impact on fuel prices in the country.

“They’ve reduced it by 2 percent, what does that make? Two percent; so what? You can reduce petrol prices far more at bigger levels than 2%.” he said.