Speaker aborts Minority motion on fuel prices

The Speaker, Mr. Peter Ala Adjetey on Thursday aborted a debate on the Minority's motion urging the government to reduce the price of the petroleum products once the world market price had steadily fallen from 29 dollars in March to the current price of about 17 dollars per barrel.

Mr. Adjetey quoting parliamentary authorities said although he had admitted the original motion for debate it did not mean that if his attention was drawn to the mistake he could not rule against it.

He said by law Parliament could not rescind its decision on a particular or a specific issue if that issue had been dealt with during the same session.

He thus upheld the point of order Captain Nkrabea Effah-Dartey, Deputy Minister for Local Government and MP for Berekum, raised on the motion that it was wrong for the House to debate the topic.

Capt Effah-Dartey held that if the debate was allowed it would be contrary to Standing Order 93 (3) of the House, which did not allow an issue to be brought back to the House when it was dealt with within a session.

He said Parliament in approving the Mid-Year Budget Review in November had by omnibus dealt with what government should do when there was a windfall in the prices of oil.

The review said any excess money accruing from the sale of petroleum products should be used to service Tema Oil Refinery's (TOR) debt of one trillion cedis.

The motion, which was sponsored by Mr. Abraham Kofi Asante, the Minority Spokesman on Energy, had sought for the application of the government's petroleum pricing formula, which provided automatic adjustment in the ex-pump price of petroleum products anytime the price of the commodity went up or down on the world market without anyone's interference.

Minority Chief Whip, Mr. Doe Adjaho, in accepting the ruling quoted Napoleon Bonaparte's: "He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day." He said the Minority would come back with a motion during the next meeting that was about three weeks away.

Replying, the Speaker said he held a contrary understanding of fighting and running away because by the time that one might come back one might realise that there was no longer any fight. This drew laughter from the House.