News:
November 2, 2022
The Minority in parliament is demanding the government steps in to cushion the citizenry as prices of petroleum products sour beyond the reach of most Ghanaians
In a press briefing on Wednesday, November 2, 2022, the Minority said Government is well placed to give some incentives to the citizens as it has made a lot of windfall from the sale of crude oil.
The Ranking on the Energy Committee, John Jinapor who addressed the media said “this country is making so much money from the Ukraine – Russian war.
In the 2022 budget government projected that it will receive a total amount of about 6bn cedis for the whole of 2022.
Today, as we speak, from the PIAC report, in less than three months (one quarter), government has received over 8bn cedis from our petroleum resources. This is more than it projected for the whole year, so government is making super normal profits”, he emphasised.
He stated that even with the price stabilization and recovery levy, which is supposed to subsidize fuel, government projected that in the first two quarters, it will receive 269m. “As we speak, from the ministry of finance own record, government has received about 800m. And so this notion that government is not making revenue is a fallacy, a complete falsehood. Government is making so much money from our petroleum resources”.
He called on government to think outside the box and “apply these huge super normal profits to cushion the ordinary Ghanaian” as the exorbitant fuel prices is having a cascading effect on food prices and the general cost of living.
“We (Minority) hold the view that government can do something about the fuel price increment. It must sit up and do something to cushion the ordinary Ghanaian. The people of Ghana are suffering and something must be done”.
“We have demonstrated to you that government got more than it required even in the first quarter. We have demonstrated to you that even with the price stabilization levy, instead of the 260m, they have got about 800m”.
They also urged government to ensure that the country’s oil refinery, the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR ) as a matter of urgency processes Ghana’s domestic crude that can give us about 45,000 barrels of processed crude on a daily basis.
This, he stated would put a less of a burden on the need for forex. ”This is not rocket science; this is something we attempted doing by giving TOR 2m barrels of oil from the TEIN fields under President Mahama. This government took over and sold those barrels of oil” he Jinapor stated.
Ghanamps.com