Govt can't reduce fuel prices - Ocquaye

Professor Mike Ocquaye, minister for energy, has said that the Government cannot reduce the prices of petroleum products because they were fixed to address various factors affecting the economy.

Reacting to the ?wahala? demonstration organised by the opposition parties, he mentioned factors taken into consideration before increasing the fuel prices as cost recover, the need to build on the reserve stock and to ensure that the nation had enough price build-up to absorb any shocks resulting from further price increases on the world market.

In an interview with the GNA, Prof. Ocquaye said other factors that informed the pricing of the commodity were the need to generate enough funds to pay the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) debt and also continue with research into exploration opportunities in Ghana.

Giving details on the factors, Professor Ocquaye said as of 2001, Ghana?s petroleum debt stock was ?3.4 trillion but the amount moved to ?4.5 trillion in 2002 from accrued interests. He said the nation was still servicing the debt and that the Government needed funds to meet the responsibility.

He said TOR and the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company needed enough funds to operate efficiently, explaining that all the required resources would come from petroleum prices.

Currently, BOST had been able to work to achieve two weeks of supply reserve but the nation needed at least six weeks of reserved fuel to be able to run efficiently without any shortages in case of an emergency.

On the cushioning factor of the pricing mechanism, Prof. Oquaye said Ghana could not continue to be changing fuel prices as and when the price of crude oil moved up on the global market.

The best solution was to have a price that could cushion the economy against any shocks that would result from world price hikes for a long period, he added.

He also argued that the Government needed to have enough margins from the taxes on the petroleum products in order to deal with unforeseen and futuristic events. A research by the chairman of the Petroleum Tender Board, Professor Addae Mensah, and his team revealed that if the pricing of the product was left to market forces, Ghanaians would have paid a maximum of ?40,000 as realistic prices.

Prof. Ocquaye said throughout the world, governments got the bulk of revenues from petroleum taxes for road construction, maintenance and other related works.

He said if the NDC had the nation at heart, then it should offer constructive ideas, rather than throw dust into the eyes of the populace, asking, ?If they had better ideas, then why was it that Ghana Commercial Bank nearly collapsed from their management??