Mr. Benjamin Nsiah, the Head of Research at Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) is urging government to as a matter of urgency rethink of expunging the numerous taxes on petroleum products.
According to the Researcher, the taxes on petroleum products are too many describing almost all of them as nuisance to the development of the country revealing that the government through state owned enterprises can generate more funds from their services to build the nation.
He said, “the state owned enterprises such as GIHOC, TOR, BOST, Ghana Airport Company etc. if operating effectively and efficiently can give the country GH¢53 billion a year but the government is not bothered but is only interested in the nuisance taxes on petroleum products that pumps only GH¢5 billion a year”.
He opined that, if government really want to grow the transport sector, there should be a second look at the taxes on the petroleum products and reduce some of the taxes to give relief to consumers.
“It really pains me that upon all the facts and figures we provided to back our claims on petroleum products analyses, the Finance Minister didn’d listen to us in the presentation of the 2022 budget statement. It was my saddest moment in the budget”, Mr. Nsiah stressed adding that the government should at least consider the burden on transport operators and passengers in the country and reduce or remove some of the taxes but nothing like that happened.
He said the most painalised aspect of it is that, the government keeps lying to the people that they are developing the country via tax which to him is fallacy saying without transparency entrusted in the usage of the taxes, the people will not feel happy to paying the tax.
Mr. Benjamin Nsiah expressed worry that, Ghana’s fuel is expensive than all it’s closer sub regions such as Burkina Faso, Togo and Ivory Coast.
“Ghana sells fuel to Burkina but Burkina’s fuel is cheaper than us. Togo, Ivory Coast all sell fuel at cheaper prices than Ghana. It is sad and government must take a critical look at it”.
With an African average of GH¢5.978 ($0.98) per litre, Ghana’s fuel is hovering around GH¢7($1.142) per litre.
Although Ghana’s price is still far lower than the global average of GH¢9.28 ($1.5), it comes 11th on the table of 44 African countries with the most expensive fuel.
Reacting to this on a Kumasi based radio station, Silver FM’s morning show dubbed Omanbapa hosted by Nana Ampratwum, Benjamin Nsiah was not overwhelmed about the above global report.
“Any government that thinks of his people, should not overburden them with taxes especially on petroleum products. The ball is in the cult of the Government, if he reduces or eliminates some of the taxes from petroleum products and churn its power to state owned enterprises as I said earlier, consumers will feel safer and Government will also generate more funds to develop Ghana”, Mr. Benjamin Nsiah, Head of Research at COPEC elaborated on the program monitored by filasconews.
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