Sammy Gyamfi urges government to scrap 'needless' taxes on petroleum products

The National Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi has blamed the government for the persistent increase in the prices of fuel products in the country and urged it to take urgent steps to reverse the trend.

Speaking on the GTV Breakfast Show, Mr. Gyamfi indicated that fuel prices are partly determined by fuel commodities on the international market.

The Communications Officer said vehicle owners and drivers are in business to make profit.

Therefore, if the prices of fuel go up, the reasonable thing these drivers need to do is to also increase the transport fares.

"Government has mismanaged the three factors that determine fuel prices, these are, international market price, taxes and levies on fuel commodities, which is controlled by the government and the third being the exchange rate, which is the responsibility of the government”, Sammy Gyamfi posited.

He noted that, when the country and the world at large was hit by Covid-19, the international market price of crude went down below $30 per barrel.

However, the government, according to Mr. Gyamfi, did not reduce fuel prices.

Mr. Gyamfi said "the persistent increment of fuel prices is largely accounted for by the imposition of crippling taxes by this government. Last year alone, they introduced a 20 pesewas energy sector levy on every liter of fuel”, he asserted.

The NDC Communications Officer described the recent surge in the prices of petroleum products at the pumps as unacceptable and also called on the government to scrap the recent increase in the Energy Sector Levies.

“If President Akufo Addo should scrap the needless sanitation levy and other taxes today, the prices of petrol and diesel will come down drastically. If they should remove some of these taxes, the prices of fuel will reduce”.