PNC Condems Petroleum price increases

January 4th 2011. Press Release on petroleum price increase

The People’s National Convention has received with dismay and dejection news that the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has announced new increases in prices of petroleum products ranging from 25-30%. These increases have a huge telling on the many Ghanaians who have just managed to overcome a very austere and not so favorable yuletide.

The NPA’s decision is the most morally inappropriate and insensitive that any institution could make particularly that most parents are to contend with harsh realities of getting their wards to school after emptying their pockets in the festive season.

Further these increases will affect every aspect of our national economy in the micro and macro level. The effects transcend transportation, agriculture, industry, education, health and shelter.

Surely, this singular act by the NPA put serious doubt in us about the true intent of President John Evans Atta Mills’s declaration of 2011 being a YEAR OF ACTION. The arguments adduced by the NPA for this reckless price increases that have potential of escalating cost of living, potential inflation and many other difficulties are not tenable.

We urge President Mills to move swiftly in stopping this ugly price increases forced on us by the NPA. We hold strong that the NPA has is authority from government and government must not allow its created institutions to take us for a ride.

Bernard Mornah General Secretary