Following the recent increase in petroleum prices, the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), has said the deregulation of the petroleum sector has so far not benefited Ghanaians.
Petrol recently went up by 4 percent while diesel is up by 2 percent.
[contextly_sidebar id=”lV056mZLuWaRft9JfHGBzVDP9ke6PgwV”]Citi News‘ checks in parts of the capital Accra, revealed that a litre of petrol which was selling at Ghc3.32 pesewas at some petrol stations, is now selling at Ghc3.47 pesewas. Also diesel has increased from Ghc3:26 pesewas to Ghc3.33 pesewas.
In June 2015, government took a policy decision to deregulate the pricing of petroleum products in a bid to sanitize the downstream petroleum sector.
The policy allowed oil marketing companies to fix their own prices, in an attempt to introduce competition to the ultimate benefit and protection of the consumer.
But assessing the policy on the Citi Breakfast Show on Friday, Campaign Coordinator of ISODEC, Dr. Steve Manteaw, described the policy as a farce that benefits only government and not the people.
“What we have here in the name of deregulation is actually a parody of deregulation. That is to say so far as we have been on this trajectory, all the benefits that have accrued from deregulation have accrued to government.”
Dr. Manteaw is of the view that the benefits government accrue from the deregulation policy are eventually wasted on dubious contracts amongst others.
“The benefits accrued to government have been misused through dubious contracting and waste of public resources.”
Dr. Steve Manteaw further accused government of essentially defeating the purpose of the deregulation policy because of the taxes imposed on petroleum products last December.
“They are always changing the goal post and they say they are deregulating; but in actual fact, by imposing taxes they are regulating the price level.”
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By Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana