$7m Spent On Presidential Trips – NDC

The NDC has questioned why the NPP spent 500,000 dollars on bullet proof vehicles for the President; 90,000 dollars on a luxurious S-class Mercedes Benz car for the Speaker of Parliament; Seven million dollars on about 60 presidential trips abroad and three billion cedis monthly on maintaining Presidential staffers and Special Assistants among other things.
A leaflet distributed during its ''March for Survival'' in Accra also criticised the increase in the price of petrol from 10,500 cedis to 20,000 cedis per gallon and an intended increase by a further 3,000 cedis.
The NDC said the Kufuor Administration was making profit of two trillion cedis from taxes Ghanaians were paying for petroleum products, yet at the same time it was claiming a debt at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), as grounds for the additional increase of petroleum prices by 3,000 cedis per gallon and called on Ghanaians to resist it.
"Kufuor's Administration wants to increase Value Added Tax (VAT), from 12.5 per cent to 17.5 per cent. Remember that in 1995, when the VAT was introduced and fixed at 17.5 per cent the NPP staged the "Kume Preko" demonstrations in which four people lost their life. An increase in VAT means paying higher prices for goods and services. It will add to our suffering'', the NDC said.
They said the "abortive IFC loans" has exposed the NPP as incompetent, na?ve and corrupt. The party scolded the NPP on the Sahara Oil Deal, and alleged that the NPP inflated the cost of the rehabilitation contract on the Castle and ministerial bungalows, adding that the expenditure of 3.2 billion cedis on the importation of mango seedlings were evidence of NPP's corruption.
The NDC accused NPP Ministers, Special Assistants and Advisors and other NPP functionaries of extravagant lifestyles. "Kufuor's Government has taken the patience of Ghanaians for granted. They have forgotten where they came from and forgotten the promises they made", the NDC said.

The NDC has questioned why the NPP spent 500,000 dollars on bullet proof vehicles for the President; 90,000 dollars on a luxurious S-class Mercedes Benz car for the Speaker of Parliament; Seven million dollars on about 60 presidential trips abroad and three billion cedis monthly on maintaining Presidential staffers and Special Assistants among other things.
A leaflet distributed during its ''March for Survival'' in Accra also criticised the increase in the price of petrol from 10,500 cedis to 20,000 cedis per gallon and an intended increase by a further 3,000 cedis.
The NDC said the Kufuor Administration was making profit of two trillion cedis from taxes Ghanaians were paying for petroleum products, yet at the same time it was claiming a debt at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), as grounds for the additional increase of petroleum prices by 3,000 cedis per gallon and called on Ghanaians to resist it.
"Kufuor's Administration wants to increase Value Added Tax (VAT), from 12.5 per cent to 17.5 per cent. Remember that in 1995, when the VAT was introduced and fixed at 17.5 per cent the NPP staged the "Kume Preko" demonstrations in which four people lost their life. An increase in VAT means paying higher prices for goods and services. It will add to our suffering'', the NDC said.
They said the "abortive IFC loans" has exposed the NPP as incompetent, na?ve and corrupt. The party scolded the NPP on the Sahara Oil Deal, and alleged that the NPP inflated the cost of the rehabilitation contract on the Castle and ministerial bungalows, adding that the expenditure of 3.2 billion cedis on the importation of mango seedlings were evidence of NPP's corruption.
The NDC accused NPP Ministers, Special Assistants and Advisors and other NPP functionaries of extravagant lifestyles. "Kufuor's Government has taken the patience of Ghanaians for granted. They have forgotten where they came from and forgotten the promises they made", the NDC said.