GCCP Statement On The Petroleum Price Increases

The decision by the Government to increase the prices of petrol’ diesel, Kerosene and other petroleum products to the astronomical level announced on Friday Jan.17, 2OO3 has come as a rude shock to the GCPP and indeed Ghanaians from all walks of life.

The GCPP calls on the Government to immediately devise means of employment by the creation of jobs for the people to do to offset the fuel Price increases. Agreed the TOR debt must be paid.

Also agreed Government has the responsibility to fix price’ in doing so measures be put in place to enable the people to afford the price increases failure of this expectation the GCPP is shocked because the astronomical increases demonstrate extreme insensitive on the part of the NPP Government to the plight of the suffering Ghanaian masses.

Pathetically, the NPP has sought refuge in the same policy measures, which they criticized while in opposition to justify the increases. It is sinful for them to put the same yoke around the necks of Ghanaians and expect our religious leaders to convince the populace to accept them.

In any case, GCPP Wonders why the Government failed to confer with the minority opposition parties as it claimed to have done with religious figures chiefs and other leaders in society.

If there was any need for any increases at all these ought to have been reasonable and in line with the Affordability principle championed by the NPP only yesterday.

Ghanaians feel betrayed by a government they voted into power on the strength of their promises to end the economic strangulation of the country by the PNDC/NUC requires. The NPP has deceived the Electorate and all the parties, groups and individuals who threw their weight behind them to wrest power from the NDC in December 2000.

The effect of the increases is disastrous for the national economy and people will have to resort to unorthodox means to survive. The government should not delude itself by the statements of support for its decisions coming from the advantaged sections of society or from its own sycophantic voices.

The government estimation that the increases will only amount to a 13% or so rise in transportation fares is a bogus and fraudulent assertion. It is only a matter of time for the real extend of the impact of the increases on the lives of average Ghanaians to dawn on the NPP Government In the light of the effects of the increases in the price of fuel, the proposed increase of 20% in the income of Civil Servants is demeaning and ridiculous.

It would be unfortunate for the Movement to railroad Civil Servants and organized labor into accepting wage adjustments, which are not

Commensurate with the reality on the ground. It would be a recipe for industrial unrest. Here again, the NPP Government must remind itself that while in opposition, they championed the need for workers to be paid decent wages so that the worker and his family could afford, at the very least, one decent meal a day.

In the current circumstances, unless wages and salaries of the average worker are doubled, there is no way that they can survive the harsh economic conditions brought about by the fuel price increases.

As regards the wage freeze and reduction in fuel allocation to the president.

His Vice. Ministers, Special Assistants and other members of the Executive the GCPP see as a resounding Nothing’. At best, it is merely symbolic. lt does not address public demands for a reduction in the number of Ministers, Special Advisors and other hangers-on who subsist on the Consolidated Fund. The NPP Government has always insisted that all its Government appointees are prosperous and self-made men and women.

Such persons could afford not to claim any salaries or salary increases.

However, for the ordinary Ghanaian worker with a family, to whom a mere

?1000.00 could be difficult to come by, that is not an option. Therefore it

behooves the NPP Government to consider the quality of the lives of such workers who are the backbone of any country’s economy.

In this regard, the GCPP decries the, attempts by the NPP to create an impression that worker's in the Urban ire35 are parasites on the national economy and that they must sacrifice for the sake of rural dwellers in any case, the astronomical increases in fuel prices will affect the rural dweller just as badly as it will the urban worker.

In conclusion, the GCPP calls on the Government to immediately review the fuel price increases. Failing that, the NPP Government may soon find itself presiding over a chaotic national situation to the detriment of peace and ‘rational stability.