Government is asking Ghanaians to appreciate its decision to implement the deregulation of the prices of petroleum products where it will no longer subsidise the prices ever again.
Subsidies, the Labour minister Haruna Iddrisu argued, is hurting the economy. The evidence, he told Joy FM and MultiTV’s current affairs programme, Newsfile Saturday, is that government spends ₵78 million every month because of subsidies.
Ghana’s deregulation policy hatched in 2005 under the John Kufuor government, entered its final phase last Tuesday after government washed its hands off the pegging of petroleum products.
The immediate effect was a 4% jump in petroleum prices the same day of the announcement. The jump is already triggering another round of price increases in goods and services such as transport fares.
Economists predict that July inflation numbers will show the real economic effect of the petroleum price increase.
Discussing the deregulation policy on Newsfile, Haruna Iddrisu dismissed the perception fueled by the Minority that deregulation is a result of IMF conditionalities.
More soon.
Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline|Edwin Appiah|[email protected]
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