Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah, has called on government to find pragmatic solutions to address the incessant increase of fuel prices in the country.
Mr Amoah revealed that the demand for the scrapping of taxes on fuel by stakeholders is a laudable idea government should consider. He indicated that the request for some taxes to be scrapped is not necessarily a demand on government to entirely “lose all the taxes on petrol”.
“We are in very difficult times and I think that we should find pragmatic solutions as opposed to thinking, well, government needs money. Government needs money but if government is the largest spender in the same economy where inflation is probably 20% almost, whatever you collect now will not suffice for anything at the end of the accounting year, simply because, fuel prices are high and fuel prices will drag the cost of your agric input [and] also it will drag the cost of food itself…”
Duncan Amoah
The COPEC Executive Secretary explained that on the Chamber’s last engagement with the Finance Minister, Energy Minister and other stakeholder bodies, he called for at least half of the “special petroleum tax component” to be scrapped as government still has the advantage of recouping the other half of the tax component.
“We are clear that you cannot continue to be charging tax on petrol at this time when the world market mix is too high already. You cannot also ask the trotro driver to continue to pay for something you call price stabilization and recovery levy, 16 pesewas; at a time when prices are not being stabilized for anything.”
Duncan Amoah
Scrapping taxes on fuel
Mr Amoah emphasized that there are quite a number of “useless taxes in our build-up” and that whiles government looks at the revenue, it should also consider the expenditure argument as well. This, he explained, is because the collection of monies by government must serve its intended purpose.
Touching on the remarks made by President Akufo-Addo which suggested that the removal of taxes is not prudent as it would lead to government missing out on some 4 billion cedis in revenue, Mr Amoah questioned whether the taxes by government can pay for the fuel that even the “police alone will use at the end of the day now that diesel on its own has crossed the GHS7 mark?”
“We are just shooting ourselves in the foot thinking we would need to collect the money like I heard Mr President say on May Day… Let me put on record and I can assure this by numbers or figures that the country will lose far more than GHS4 billion. In fact, you could lose between GHS10 billion and GHS20 billion at the end of the accounting year from the same fuel prices that continue to remain very high.”
Duncan Amoah
The COPEC boss’ comments followed calls made by the Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr Yaw Baah, for the suspension of taxes on fuel until prices are stabilised. He revealed that the high prices of fuel, with negative impact on food and commodity prices, was affecting workers’ wages badly and the standard of living.
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