Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC), Duncan Amoah, has revealed that government may likely be hit the hardest by the rising cost of fuel in the country.
Describing the situation as “very depressing”, he indicated that it is sad and quite unfortunate that government is waiting for the problem to get worse before any action is taken on these things. Dr Amoah explained that Ghanaians from all walks of life have had issues with “fuel pricing in Ghana” over the period. He noted that those within the policy space, that should be considering what to do to ensure that Ghanaians do not get the current “bargain” on fuel prices, have all “gone to sleep”. To operate “office of government machinery”, Dr Amoah intimated that government would have to spend a fortune to keep state agenices such as the judiciary and ministries running as they rely on fuel in their daily operations.
“I do think that the finance minister ought to sit up and do a lot better than he is doing. The fuel price increase, you would find the commercial transport operator complaining… The one to be hardest hit by it would be the government itself. Perhaps it’ll take time to realize this, but if you want the single largest consumer within the economy, it is the government itself… Again, government’s projects, contracts and businesses will all go up because we have become spectators. Those within the policy space that should be contemplating how to manage the fluid situation have gone to sleep”.
Dr Duncan Amoah
Government raising revenue from fuel
Dr Amoah expressed that the issue with the country’s political actors has to do with a situation whereby government is more likely to lose than gain with its imposition of taxes to rake in more revenue. He emphasized that although government seeks to raise revenue from fuel and it may sound like “we need money”, this is not the right way to go about it.
“So, we are collecting every revenue that we can get; both taxes at the pump and the windfall revenue that is accruing. Simply, we also have crude prices at present hovering around $95 a barrel whereas in the 2022 budget, government projected revenue for our crude export is $62.5 a barrel. So, there’s a big gap on there in excess of $30 a barrel currently. For that matter, the finance minister may want to think that he is getting excess revenue that he can use for other things. But that is where he will get it wrong entirely…”
Dr Duncan Amoah
Commenting on the impact of the increase of fuel prices on commercial transport operators, Dr Amoah expressed that they are being held to “ransom” by the transport ministry. He therefore emphasized that the ministry has no business determining transport fares for the transport operators.
“That era where we had price of petrol regulated; so, the finance minister comes to read the budget and indicate how much fuel will be sold for the year… is long gone. You cannot deregulate fuel prices and say people should buy fuel at the pump based on certain numbers. Then when the prices go up and they need to increase their fares, you say they should come and sit for a meeting. Meeting on what exactly?”.
Dr Duncan Amoah
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