CJA to demonstrate against fuel price increment?

A leading member of pressure group Committee for Joint Action (CJA), Alhaji Mohammed Ramadan told Citi news that the group may resist reported attempts by government to pass on increment in world petroleum prices to the Ghanaian consumer.

He says if government fails to explore other options to lessen the burden on the ordinary Ghanaian, the CJA may explore options and possibly hit the streets.

The group, formed during the tenure of the ex-while NPP administration has held several demonstrations against upward adjustments of petroleum prices in Ghana.

A barrel of crude oil currently costs about 64 dollars on the international market.

There are hints that the National Petroleum Authority will review fuel prices upward by about 10 percent.

Deputy Energy Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor on Friday May 29, 2009, told Citi News that the NDC Government will only subsidize oil prices if the people of Ghana demand such.

He said until then, the NDC Government will insist that the increases in oil prices are passed on to the consumer while effective measures are put in place to ensure efficiency in production and consumption.

Dr Donkor said he will recommend the upward review due to the international trend.

He however says there is the need for a national debate on whether the Government should commit as much as over seven million Ghana cedis every two weeks to subsidize local fuel prices as was done by the former administration.

Although the price of crude oil in the international market keeps increasing consistently, the CJA has always kept an uncompromising position that government can lessen the burden on the ordinary Ghanaians by reducing the tax element on petroleum products.

Speaking on the Citi Eyewitness news on Friday, May 29, 2009, Alhaji Ramadan said “if every increase would be passed on to the consumer it would get to a point where almost all the industries would end up grinding to a halt because the cost would become so unbearable.”

He advised government to “haul taxes from other sources rather than over relying on petroleum.”

He said the CJA will study the situation and offer alternatives to government and if government fails to take stringent measures to ease the burden on ordinary Ghanaians, then they can consider hitting the streets.

Meanwhile, former Energy Minister Professor Mike Ocquaye says the NDC appears to be amending its position on subsidizing fuel prices now that it has assumed the reigns of power.

Professor Ocquaye says some of the tax reduction on petroleum prices by the NDC Government has had negligible impact on the consumer.

By: Samuel Osei/citifmonline.com