The Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, has assured Ghanaians that the government is working towards ameliorating the effect of the rising prices of petroleum products at the pumps.
“There is going to be heavy sacrifices on the part of government, NPA and everybody so that together, we can move our country forward,” he added.
Dr Abdul-Hamid was speaking at Takoradi during a meeting with the Western Regional Minister, KwabenaOkyereDarko-Mensah, as part of his familiarisation tour in the region.
The tour which included visit to the Atuabo Gas Plant and Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, among others, was to enable the CEO to familiarise himself with operations of some companies in the region.
Discussing petroleum taxes, Dr Abdul-Hamid said that government collect GHC1.90 as tax on a litre of fuel, adding that the amount was not significant to the individual consumers given the recent frequent rising cost of fuel on the international market.
Abolishing such taxes in the face of the current challenges, he noted, would be a huge revenue loss to government.
Removing those taxes would amount to a loss of more than GHC4 billion of government revenue.
At the same time, Ghanaians are demanding for infrastructure and economic growth although revenue is cut,” Dr Abdul-Hamid noted.
MrDarko-Mensah, on his part, decried rising fuel prices saying that “instead of $61 per barrel of crude oil, we are looking at $120 per barrel.”
Such rise, he said, negatively impact the government’s revenue collection and services it could deliver to support Ghanaians.
He noted that the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) was equally concerned about challenges in the sector including illegal bunkering of petroleum product.
MrDarko-Mensah advised the NPA to engage communities on the effects of the practice.
“We want the NPA to take immediate action towards engaging communities to avert the problem.
If you engage and invest in some kind of corporate social responsibility programmes, it will do us a lot of good,” he said.
BY TIMES REPORTER
The post We’ll ameliorate effects of rising petroleum prices – NPA CEO appeared first on Ghanaian Times.
