Fuel price hikes: Be grateful; you would have paid GHC5.54 per litre – Amewu

Ghanaians would have been paying about GHS5.50 per litre for fuel had the Akufo-Addo government not intervened to mitigate the price hike, Energy Minister John Peter Amewu, has said.

The price of fuel hit the GHS5-plus mark on Monday, 17 September 2018, a prediction the Institute of Energy Security (IES) had made earlier.

Mr Amewu, however, explained to journalists at a press conference on Thursday, 20 September 2018 that government’s interventions restrained the price to the current GHS5.12 per litre.

Mr Amewu’s explanation follows agitation among some Ghanaians about the rising price of fuel, which has seen some driver unions threaten to increase transport fares.

Without that intervention, consumers would have had to pay GHS5.54 for petrol and GHS5.50 for diesel, the minister said.

Per his calculation, consumers are paying 9% and 8% less than they should have paid for petrol and diesel, respectively, thanks to government’s intervention.

“Ladies and gentlemen, government has used tax interventions to mitigate the impact of domestic petroleum price increases,” Mr Amewu said.

He enumerated the measures implemented by government since March 2017 to August 2018 as follows:

1. Removal of excise duty on the 16th March 2017.

2. Reduction of the Special Petroleum Tax rate from 17.5% to 15 % on 16 March 2017.

3. Reduction of the Special Petroleum Tax rate from 15% to 13 % on 16th February 2018.

4. Conversion of the Special Petroleum Tax from Ad valorem to Special Tax on 16th February 2018

5. Reduction of the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levies (PSRL) from 1st December 2017; Currently the PSRL has been reduced from GHP12/Lt to zero for petrol, GHP 10/Lt to zero for diesel and GHP 10/kg to GHP 3/kg for LPG.