The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the Nana Akufo-Addo government does not care about the plight of Ghanaians in the wake of a surge in prices of petroleum products.
Fuel prices went up over the weekend after similar increases in previous weeks. This has led to complaints about hardships from Ghanaians.
Commenting on the increases at a press briefing in Accra Monday, October 18, 2021, National Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, attributed the prevailing hardships to “callousness and insensitivity on the part of the NPP government”.
He said the increases were the result of the introduction of a raft of taxes targeted at shoring up the government’s finances and the depreciation in the value of the cedi.
Mr Gyamfi noted that the fuel price increments mirrored increments in the prices of several items on the market, and wondered what had become of the promise by the NPP to move from taxation to production?
Mr Gyamfi said the economy was in shambles despite the “availability of an unprecedented inflow of resources”.
He charged the government to “sit up and stabilize the Ghana cedi through prudent economic management so as to stabilize fuel prices”.
“Permit me to state from the word go, that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia-NPP government has shown itself to be callous and does not appear a give a hoot about the plight of Ghanaians. Otherwise, what can be the justification for the rampant and persistent increases in fuel prices we are witnessing in Ghana today?”
“As you may be aware, Ghanaians have once again been slapped with another increase in pump prices of fuel by the insensitive and clueless Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration. Only yesterday, the price of diesel and petrol was increased by 7%. This is the ninth (9th) consecutive time, in the year 2021 alone, that the prices of petroleum products have gone up. This has increased the price per gallon of diesel and petrol from about GH¢21.00 as at January this year, to about GH¢31.00 currently,” he said.
Scrapping of PSRL stalls as fuel prices rise to GH¢6.80 per litre
The National Petroleum Authority last week announced the removal of the Price Stabilization and Recovery Levies (PRSL) on petrol, diesel, and LPG for two months.
However, the much-anticipated removal of the levy is yet to take effect even as the second pricing window commences.
This is because Parliament is yet to give the NPA the approval needed to scrap the levy because the House is on recess.
A litre of petrol and diesel is now selling at GH¢6.80 at the various filling stations.
