The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has added its voice to calls by well-meaning Ghanaians to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to scrap some of the unnecessary taxes that have been heaped on the price build-up of petroleum products to reduce the burdens of Ghanaians.
The party called on President Akufo-Addo to sit up and stabilize the Ghana Cedi through prudent economic management and also stabilize fuel prices and the prices of imported products in general.
National Communication Officer of the NDC, Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, who made the call, described as high and unbearable the cost of living that Ghanaians are experiencing under the watch of President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr. Bawumia.
He entreated President Akufo-Addo and Dr Bawumia to respect and uphold the sanctity of their political pact with the Ghanaian electorate.
“The Ghanaian people did not bargain for this level of tax burden on the prices of petroleum products in the 2020 December 7 Polls.”
“Governance at all times must be about the advancement of the collective good and not the narrow interest of a select few.”
“This government has become too removed from the stark realities of the Ghanaian people and it is about time they got back on track”.
Mr. Sammy Gyamfi argued that if only government would listen to the NDC and do as advised, the prices of diesel and petrol would come down drastically.
“This will stabilize the ever-rising prices of general goods and services and go a long way to ameliorate the plight of suffering Ghanaians. But should government fail to heed our wise counsel as they always do, prices of general goods and services will continue to soar, hardships in the country will continue to worsen to gargantuan levels and all of us, irrespective of our political affiliations, except the few privileged ones in government, will continue to suffer.”
Mr. Sammy Gyamfi urged President Akufo-Addo and Vice Bawumia to as a matter of urgency scrap the Special Petroleum Tax (SPT) of 46 pesewas on a litre of diesel and petrol.
According to him, the SPT was introduced by the erstwhile NDC/Mahama administration sometime in 2016 when crude oil export price fell far below the government’s budgetary projections. “The objective was to shore up government’s revenue for development purposes. But given the fact that crude oil export price has increased from below $40 to above $80 per barrel currently, far above the government’s budgetary projection of $54.75 per barrel, it is untenable for government to still maintain the SPT on the price of petroleum products now, and same should be scrapped immediately.”
“This is particularly so, when government’s revenue from the oil sector for the second quarter of this year 2021, went up by almost 60%, equivalent to US$89.1 million, as compared to oil revenue for the same period in the previous year”.
The party also called on government to scrap the newly introduced taxes on fuel products such as the Energy Sector Levies of 20 pesewas on a litre of diesel and petrol and the new sanitation levy (“Borla” tax) of 10 pesewas on a litre of diesel and petrol, as these are totally needless and useless.
The NDC also called on the government to scrap the new increase of 18 pesewas on a kilogram of LPG and to consider the review of other existing taxes on fuel products in line with proposals submitted to the Ministry of Finance and Energy by the Chamber Of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) and other stakeholders in the downstream petroleum sector.