Kwaku Kwarteng
The recent upward adjustment in the prices of petroleum products has come under a barrage of condemnation from a broad spectrum of the population, development bodies and pressure groups.
While Development Data, the body which dragged the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) to court and won a case regarding illegal price margins, described the increase as a coup against the judiciary, the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) on the other hand said it presages hard times in 2012.
Joshua Quashigah-Sowu, Research Director of Development Data noted that given the yet-to-be-determined application for a stay of execution pending an appeal by government on illegal price margins, the increase is a breach of law.
Government, it noted, is determined to exploit petroleum pricing to extract money from the citizenry, adding that “government and the NPA have made a conscious decision to defy the courts and bear the consequences”, which is “a dangerous development”.
Development Data, found untenable the reasons being adduced for the price increases given the ongoing hedging arrangement which guarantees stable prices for the country’s crude oil purchases.
“So the explanation offered by government that the fuel price increases have been due to increase in crude oil price is not credible,” Development Data pointed out and added: “If the ex-refinery differential is used to reduce fuel prices as government claims, then why these increases when the illegal price margins are still in place in spite of the Court order?”
Development Data called on civil society organizations, the media and institutions with representation on the board of the NPA to ensure the state agency abides by the rule of law.
It would be recalled that on 28th November 2011, an Accra High Court ruled against the illegal fuel price margins referred to as ex-refinery differential, and ordered the NPA to reduce prices accordingly.
Government against the backdrop of the ruling stated that it would remove subsidies on petroleum products if it were to abide by the court ruling, explaining further that the margins were used to reduce fuel prices.
Development Data regards this government logic strange even as the 10th January 2012 date for the court ruling on the stay of execution application draws near.
While describing the development as shocking, AFAG in their reaction noted that the 15-30% petroleum increases which took effect yesterday is an indication of difficult times ahead for the ordinary Ghanaian.
“The failure to pay December salaries of public sector workers had already dampened the Christmas celebration and to hit the nation with this price hikes smacks of hypocrisy and the so called ‘better Ghana agenda’ of the NDC Government led by Professor Mills,” AFAG pointed out in their statement on the price increases.
Such increases, AFAG stated, is almost a routine, recalling how last year “two (2) days after the new year celebration, i.e. 3rd of January, 2011, we were greeted with news of 30% price hikes in petroleum prices and the reason given was that, there is a rise in international crude price and TOR debt.”
Coming in a year christened as an Action Year, the increase, according to AFAG, suggests that government has not heard the complaints about hard times from Ghanaians, especially on the heels of the Xmas.
“We in AFAG would like the NDC Government and the NPA to respond to these nagging questions;
1. If in 2007/8, at an international crude oil price of $147/barrel, petrol was less than GHC6.00, how come at $102/barrel, petrol is being sold at GHC8.00.
2. What happened with the hedging? Ghana requires an answer.
3. What has happened to the anticipated over GHC1.2billion accrued from the oil revenue as stated in the mid-year review of the 2011 budget statement?
4. What plans are being pursued to refine our own oil to do away with the transportation cost in the price build up?”
The price increase, according to AFAG, is not justified and so they demand its withdrawal lest they take what for them are necessary steps to fight for Ghanaians.
The two groupings made the headlines recently when they championed two causes which resonated across the political turf.
Whereas Development Data won a case regarding illegal price margins on fuel, AFAG brought to the public domain the construction of a multimillion dollar headquarters edifice for the ruling NDC which caught the party on the back foot.
By A.R. Gomda