Former Deputy Power Minister John Jinapor has called on the government to scrap the Special Petroleum Tax to ease the pressures on users of petroleum products.
The Ministry of Finance on Thursday, February 15, 2018, laid a Special Petroleum Tax (Amendment) Bill before Parliament seeking to reduce the Special Petroleum Tax of 15% to 13% to help reduce petroleum prices in the country.
The tax was introduced the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government in 2016 to support revenue generation.
Introducing the amendment bill before the House by the Deputy Finance Minister, Kwaku Kwarteng; the Minority in Parliament asked the government to completely remove the tax to give relief to Ghanaians as they (NPP) earlier promised during the 2016 electioneering campaign.
Addressing the issue on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' on Friday, the former Minister urged government to heed the call by the Minority.
According to him, the new adjustments in the petroleum sector by the Finance Ministry are nothing but a disguise to suggest the government was reducing the prices of petroleum.
He noted that the adjustments will only create more problems for fuel users in the country because though a 13% percent reduction is not reflective of the prices at the pump.
John Jinapor further told host Kwami Sefa Kayi that despite the amendments made by the government "the current price of fuel is far higher than when the NPP took over at the pump. We can’t debate it. With all that they’ve done, if you go to buy fuel today; the fuel was cheaper during President Mahama’s time than Akufo-Addo’s time”.
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