News:
September 3, 2014
The Minority in Parliament has kicked against government’s decision to hedge fuel prices in the country.
Government decided to introduce a quarterly hedging as a way of avoiding the huge debts accumulating from subsidizing petroleum products.
Per the hedging arrangement, the price of crude oil will be pegged at a particular figure over a period of time and, thus any price fluctuation during the period of the hedging would not be transferred onto the consumer.
The hedging is aimed at cushioning Ghanaians against the fuel price hikes.
Meanwhile, speaking on the Eye Witness News on Tuesday, K.T Hammond, the Ranking Member of the Energy Committee of Parliament described the move as a hopeless situation.
He indicated that the problem has to do with the weakening Cedi and not prices on the international market.
“It will not benefit us. International crude prices have not gone up since last year. It has nothing to do with international market prices; it is due to the depreciation of the Cedi. What they need to hedge against is further depreciation of the Cedi. That has got nothing to do with petroleum prices” he insisted.
KT Hammond who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Adansi Fomena said the government had introduced such hedging strategy before but did not produce significant results.
“This is not the first time such facility has been put in place. It was been put in place some four or three years ago. It run through before the last election and I’m sure it had continued until recently. The point is this, at the time when this facility was ongoing we were paying increased petroleum prices. What was the point in the first one, if it did not benefit us. What is the sense in now putting another one in place, at a time when petroleum prices are coming down,” he said.
By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh