Parliament will summon Finance Minister, Seth Terkper and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Moses Asaga for providing what it describes as misleading information for the passage of the controversial energy sector levy.
[contextly_sidebar id=”a0jw9EXa1GgjkeiBxfvfeouth5WQqIhf”]Citi News revealed some days ago from Parliament that the Ministry of Finance only sanctioned a 5 percent and 2.9 percent increase in the price of petrol and diesel, which took effect on Monday January 4, 2016.
Fuel prices at the pumps had gone up by between 22 percent and 27 percent following the passage of the Energy Sector Levy (ESL) by Parliament in December 2015.
The price of LPG also went up by about 18 percent.
A report by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Finance however revealed that Parliament approved a 5.18 percent increase for the price of petrol, 2.90 percent for Gas Oil and 1.74 percent for LPG.
The information was captured in the report by the Committee on the Energy Sector Levies Bill 2015.
Revealing this to Citi News, Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament James Avedzi whose Committee report preceded the passage of the levy says his committee had been misled.
“What he presented was that petrol and diesel will not go more than five per cent, and that gas won’t go beyond two per cent. Because at the committee we demanded from the Ministry what the effect on the ex pump price of the petroleum product. If you look at the final committee report, that’s the figure we quoted” he said.
He explained that the Committee only presented its report to the House after it was convinced that the fuel prices will not go beyond five per cent.
“In actual fact we have approved specific taxes, that is, increase in the Road Fund, increase in street lighting fees and others so if they did not put these into consideration before giving us that impression that the increase is five per cent and two per cent, then that will be a misrepresentation of the facts. So we will call them and find out why they have misrepresented the facts before the committee”, he stated.
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By: Franklin Badu Jnr/citifmonline.com/Ghana