The Member of Parliament for New Juaben South,\u00a0Mark Assibey Yeboah, has accused government of misleading Parliament and Ghanaians about the\u00a027% hike in fuel prices occasioned by the passage of the Energy Sector Levy (ESL) in December.<\/p>\n
According to the MP, Parliamentarians are not to blame for the 27% increase in fuel prices because the hansard on the fuel price increase indicated a maximum 5% increase and not 27%.<\/p>\n
He has thus expressed shock that the pumps are rather charging a 27% increase.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”7onJ9B3rttmfw4biG0fWzZKUtVmwKD6W”]Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News,<\/strong> he said, \u201cWe don\u2019t set prices, we can only rely on the information provided us by government. If the Minister lied to parliament, then he lied to the rest of the country because in the hansard, they said categorically that fuel prices were not going to go up more than 5%.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Assibey Yeboah explained that the legislators do not set prices and hence should not be blamed for the increase.<\/p>\n \u201cWe couldn\u2019t have done the calculations. We don\u2019t set prices. We only looked at these levies, what they are intended to do and the purposes they are going to serve. We ask the relevant questions and now government comes with\u00a0a 27% increase, I don\u2019t think anybody should be blaming us.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Assibey Yeboah believes\u00a0the Minister probably deceived the public, saying there should be consequences if indeed government was aware that the\u00a05% increment would translate into a 27% increase at the fuel pumps.<\/p>\n \u201cIf indeed Government knew that the imposition of these levies was going to translate into a higher than 5% increase in the ex-pump prices, then Government was dishonest to the members of parliament\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s worrying and if indeed somebody knew that there was going to be a larger percentage increase and they lied to parliament, I think there could be consequences,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n This has led to many pointing accusing fingers at Bulk Oil Distributing Companies (BDCs) for the rather high increases at the pumps.<\/p>\n