Minority urges govt to justify proposed increase in Petroleum products

The Minority in Parliament on Friday urged government to explain how it managed the windfall from the fall of petroleum prices, how the petroleum price fixing formula was working and how efficiently the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) was being managed before it should think of increasing petroleum prices.

The Minority said the proposed increase in prices of petroleum products by Government was untenable because there has not been sufficient preparatory work to make it justifiable.

It said Government could only justifiably introduce new prices through a comprehensive package in dealing with incomes and remuneration of workers, elimination of waste and efficiency in the oil industry and an honest explanation as to how it handled the existing TOR debt and the windfall that arose from the drop in crude oil prices.

Mr. Abraham Kofi Asante, Minority Ranking member on Mines and Energy said this at a Press conference at Parliament House to express the Minority's misgivings about the purported increase in petroleum prices by the government.

He however, said the Minority, and indeed, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was not entirely against increase in petroleum price but would rather insist on the right thing to be done and that there should be adequate measures put in place to justify the increases.

The Minority is not against increase in the product per se but it was rather insisting on the right thing to be done.

The Ranking member who is also the MP for Amenfi West said, "In the current difficult national economic situation characterized by low wages, high unemployment, and a stagnant economy, petroleum price increases would worsen the hardship that the ordinary people of this country are facing".

He said it was the belief of the Minority that Government must introduce any planned petroleum increases as part of a holistic package that dealt with improved pay package for workers, improvement of management in the petroleum sector and the elimination of waste and inefficiency in production.

Mr Asante recalled that in 2001, the government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) passed the Customs and Excise (Petroleum Taxes and petroleum related Levis) (Amendment Act 2001, Act 593, under which it removed the then existing ad valorem duty of 15 per cent of the ex-refinery price of petroleum products.

Under the Act, the Energy Fund Levy, the Strategic Stock Levy and the Hydrocarbon Exploration Levy were all increased at various percentages resulting in an overall effect of a net increase of over 64 per cent in the ex-pump prices of petroleum products, he added.