Fuel prices: Government fast losing credibility – IES

Energy think-thank Institute for Energy Security(IES) has said the Akufo Addo led-government is losing credibility in the eyes of petroleum consumers for reviewing the Special Petroleum Tax instead of scrapping it.

Government on Thursday presented before Parliament a review of the Bill from 15% to 13% in the wake of recent agitations over fuel prices.

Hundreds of Commercial Drivers and Consumers of Petroleum products hit the streets of the capital-Accra recently over what they said is the persistent increases in the prices of petroleum products.

The protest which was organized by the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers(COPEC-GH) in collaboration with the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union(ICU) was against the worrying fuel hikes particularly seen in the past five months with the corresponding hardships these increases had come with.

However the IES and other petroleum consumers say the reduction is woefully inadequate and have called for an outright scrapping of the tax.

The Principle Research Analyst at the Institute for Energy, Richmond Rockson described government’s defence of the latest reduction as disingenuous.

“The deputy Minister for Finance speaks about principle and I think that if we talk about principle we should be able to stand our grounds irrespective of whether we’re in power or opposition. If you’re in government we don’t expect you to be reducing it and be suing the argument that it was 17.5% and you’re are rather taking steps to reduce it drastically.”