The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has pointed out that if the government had retrieved the monies wrongfully paid to persons and companies under the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency program (GYEEDA), it could have easily settled its debt to the Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs).<\/p>\n
The party\u2019s Communications Director, Nana Akomea, on the Point Blank<\/strong> segment of Eyewitness News<\/strong> said: \u201cIf the government collected only the GYEEDA \u00a0money, it will cover for this GHC 400 million and you and I will be free from this burden of paying so much for petrol.\u201d<\/p>\n The government has been unable to significantly reduce the prices of petroleum products despite the drastic fall of crude oil prices on the world market.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”GvaQLeytL7fcjTRy0AP4xw9CQwAr9qhM”]The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has indicated that it has so far paid GHC 200 million out of its GHC 412 million debt<\/strong><\/span><\/a> owed the BDCs.<\/p>\n The monies used for the part payment was accrued after the Authority\u2019s refusal to reduce petroleum prices to reflect the crude oil prices on the world market.<\/p>\n However, after intense pressure from Labour, pressure groups, the Minority and industry players, the NPA reduced petroleum prices by 10%<\/strong><\/span><\/a>; a reduction which has been described as woefully inadequate.<\/p>\n According to Nana Akomea, the nation is sitting on so much wealth which could be used to solve the socio-economic challenges.<\/p>\n This wealth he said has been wasted in the numerous needless judgement debts paid to individuals and institutions and also, the misappropriation of state funds by state agencies.<\/p>\n He said the government has woefully failed in keeping its promising to ensure all monies are refunded back to the state.<\/p>\n The government has itself pledged to us that it will collect those monies. If you take just GYEEDA, $100 million has been paid out that has to be collected. The government told us two years ago that it was going to collect the money but it hasn\u2019t,\u201d he observed.<\/p>\n He further criticized the government for being \u201cvery, very quick when it comes to imposing taxes on Ghanaians. Look at the speed with which they brought the 20% VAT, the 17.5% extra tax on petrol. Look at the alertness, the alacrity and then when it comes to collecting owed the tax payer, then everybody relaxes.\u201d<\/p>\n Nana Akomea mentioned that Ghanaians are currently \u201cpaying for government\u2019s failure, we are paying for bad governance, the inability to hold the cedi and their inability to collect monies owed the tax payer.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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