The Akufo-Addo government must “scrap some of the unnecessary taxes they have heaped on the price buildup of petroleum products so as to drastically reduce same”, the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said.
At a press conference on Monday, 18 October 2021, the party’s National Communications Officer, Mr Sammy Gyamfi, said: “We hold the view, that the two-month suspension or zero-rating of the Stabilisation and Recovery Levy of 14 pesewas and 16 pesewas per litre of diesel and petrol, respectively, is wholly-inadequate, insufficient and cannot bring about any significant reduction in the current prices of fuel products”.
“In fact, given the fact that the price of a gallon of diesel and petrol has increased by close to GHc10.00 in this year, 2021 alone, it is an insult to the sensibilities of suffering Ghanaians for government to offer to reduce the price of fuel by a paltry 63 pesewas, which is the net effect of the zero-rating of the Stabilisation and Recovery Levy government has announced”.
The party said: “We, therefore, wish to call on the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia-NPP government to, as a matter of urgency, scrap:
1. the Special Petroleum Tax (SPT) of 46 pesewas on a litre of diesel and petrol. It will be recalled that 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 the 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 the 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.
2. In the same vein, we call on the 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
3. the new sanitation levy (“Borla” tax) of 10 pesewas on a litre of diesel and petrol, as same is totally needless and useless.
4. We also demand that the new increase of 18 pesewas on a kilogram of LPG must be scrapped.
5. And finally, we wish to call on the government 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”.