News:
September 24, 2018
The Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy committee of Parliament, Adam Mutawakilu is calling on the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led government to as a matter of urgency scrap the special petroleum tax to mitigate the plight of Ghanaians as the prices of petroleum products are witnessing constant hikes.
The tax he said has outlived its usefulness because now the world market prices allow government to make a windfall of 10 million dollars per day from its crude exports.
He indicated that the current price of crude per barrel is $77 as against the benchmark of $57 per barrel as presented to parliament in the 2018 budget statement hence the taxes must be scrapped.
”In the 2018 budget, this [Akufo-Addo] government presented to Parliament a benchmark price [the price at which we sell our oil] of $57 per barrel. But as we speak now, the price per barrel is $77 per barrel. That means government is making surplus of $20 per barrel. And currently we produce at almost 200,000 barrels. So if you multiply this $20 barrel excess by 200,000 we are talking about $10 million surplus every day.”
“That means every day government is making surplus of $10 million. By this, the special petroleum tax has nowhere to fill in the gaps in respect to the oil prices. And that is why we are calling on President Nana Akufo-Addo to as a matter of urgency scrap the special petroleum tax. Currently, it’s about 46 pesewes per litre, and if it’s about 5 litres a gallon, you are talking about Ghc2.2. If you calculate it as a percentage that’s about 10%,” he explained.
Speaking to Journalists in Accra, the Damongo Member of Parliament emphasized the need for government to be sensitive to the plight of citizens since petroleum products are currently selling at Gh 5 or more at the pumps.
By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com