A Lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Cape Coast, Dr. John Windie Ansah says government has a key role to play in reducing the prices of petroleum products in the country to ease the burden on citizens who visit the fuel pumps.
Although the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has assured that prices of petroleum products would be reduced in the next pricing window, Dr. Ansah thinks the government can do more to cut down the prices since it controls about 27 percent of the pricing.
He explained saying “there are about seven levies or taxes that add to the petroleum price build-up. When these figures are added it amounts to 1.90 cedis close to 2 cedis. Thus, for every liter of fuel, we buy 1.9 is actually a politically induced price. If we look at 1.9 to 6.9 then it tells you that we are talking about something which is about 27 percent which is more than a quarter and this is where for me as a political economist, I always argue that the political dynamics of pricing in Ghana as far as petrol is concerned is very critical. That means that the government itself has control,”
While expressing his dissatisfaction with the nature of deregulation of petroleum prices in the country on the ATLANTIC WAVE he noted that “I sometimes question the whole argument of deregulation because it is not full deregulation; there is a government side to it.”
Reiterating his stance on the matter, Dr. John Windie Ansah said “that is why sometimes when the argument is raised that government cannot do anything about fuel prices, I keep on asking the question why they cannot do anything about it when these politically controlled components of the pricing can actually be manipulated in a way that may ameliorate the burden placed on citizens.”
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He further noted that despite the call for the scrapping of some levies that add up to the pricing of petroleum products, “parliament should call on the Ministers responsible to tell us what these monies have actually been used for.”
He believes that, this, when done, citizens will have the needed confidence to comply with paying extra on every liter of petrol they buy.
Source: Rosemond Asmah/ATLFMNEWS
