The Executive Director of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe says Ghana is economically dead and cannot afford to continue subsidizing petroleum products.<\/p>\n
He was of the opinion that government does not have the needed funds to keep\u00a0providing subsidies and wondered why the situation persists if not for “political expediency.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it is not for political expediency, why should we be doing things we can\u2019t necessarily handle?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Some major cities across the country are experiencing acute shortage of fuel.<\/p>\n
This occurred due to the failure of government to settle its debt of GHC 1.8 billion to Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs).<\/p>\n
International suppliers of petroleum products have since refused to supply the BDCs with petrol and diesel unless the BDCs pay their accumulated debt.<\/p>\n
Government has therefore released an amount of $60 million to offset some of the debt in a bid to resolve the fuel shortage.<\/p>\n
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) in June, 2013, announced the removal of fuel subsidies by government in a bid to reduce budget deficit.<\/span><\/p>\n Subsequently, consumers were expected to bear the full cost of petroleum products.<\/p>\n This resulted in the frequent upward adjustment of the petroleum prices using the Automatic Adjustment Formula.<\/p>\n Public outcry on the issue forced government to re-introduce fuel subsidies in April 2014.<\/p>\n According to the IMANI boss, it is no surprise the debate on fuel subsidies has resurfaced \u201cbecause we never really learned our lessons so in a very panicky mode, we have to speak to this issue again.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking at\u00a0Citi FMs<\/strong>\u00a0Roundtable discussion on Fuel Subsidies, Mr. Cudjoe said even though Ghana is economically dead, the government has been \u201cpostponing our funeral almost every time.\u201d<\/p>\n He was of the opinion that removing fuel subsidies is only a matter of \u201ccommon sense\u201d because \u201cyou can\u2019t promise people things you don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Cudjoe said it is wrong to compartmentalize poverty which informs government\u2019s decision to subsidize certain essential products such as petrol, electricity, water and fertilizer.<\/p>\n He indicated that government is only \u201cboxing itself into some problems\u201d by subsidizing fuel and therefore,\u00a0suggested that instead of subsidizing essential products, government should rather embark on socio-economic interventions like transportation.<\/p>\n He said emphatically that \u201cgovernment is broke\u201d and is currently indebted to many government institutions and so \u201cthe last thing you would want the government to continue doing to impose a subsidy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole idea of subsidy should not look on poverty as if it was a compartmentalized product,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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