Kwesi Pratt Jnr, a prominent member of pressure group Committee for Joint Action has described the recent 15-20 percent fuel price increment as �fraudulent�. He said the fuel price hikes have been shrouded in �fraud�, �trickery� and �dishonesty�.
��If you look at the way the prices are calculated, they are using brent crude�now brent curde is the highest [grade] of crude oil that you can buy on the market, they should tell us whether they are actually buying brent crude�we are actually importing our crude oil from Equatorial Guinea, from Nigerian and so on which don�t sell brent crude�so the mere fact that they are using brent crude in the calculations will suggest fraud ab initio, no doubt about it�.��There�s an inherent fraud�there are many many other things which suggest that this is outright fraud�.
Kwesi Pratt Jnr said: �TOR has since July last year not refined a teaspoonful of crude so where is the NPA refining that brent crude?�
��If Alex Mould is talking about bringing in brent crude for refinery then he should be showing us where that refinery is�, he charged.
The price hikes took effect from Sunday February 17, 2013.
A statement signed by the Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority, Alex Mould Said: "The maximum indicative price for a litre of petrol will be GHS 2.0496 (GHS9.22 per gallon) and the maximum indicative prices for a litre of diesel will be GHS2.0683 will (GHS9.31 per gallon)."
The NPA said the new prices are based on the crude oil price of $116 per barrel and an exchange rate of GHS1.89/USD.
Petrol which sold for GHC 7 will now sold at the pumps for GHC 9.22.
Kerosene is also up by 15% and will be selling at 104. 65 pesewas per litre.
LPG is also up by 50% and will be selling at 194.85 per litre or GHS24.36 per a 12.5 kg cylinder.
The Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper told the XYZ Breakfast Show hosted by Moro Awudu that he suspected an ulterior motive behind the recent fuel price hikes.
��The reasons given by government are not the real reasons and that the Ghanaian consumer is being hoodwinked; I am quite sure that it�s not because of the subsidy. It is because there is a hole in the budget which needs to be filled and they should be honest about it then we can debate the merits and demerits of loading all of the petroleum taxes, all of the taxes, all of the revenue the government requires from petroleum�but trying to trick us with all kinds of gimmicks�is fraudulent in the extreme�.
He demanded some transparency in the whole fuel price hikes.
��They should tell us the truth and stop this fraudulent behaviour�, adding: �All these tricks; getting people to arrest five people with six gallons of petrol and calling them fuel smugglers and so on as a means of creating the conditions for the fuel price increase; these tricks were employed by Acheampong in the 1970s; every Ghanaian can see through them; you can�t fool us anymore�, Mr Pratt charged, adding: �Why are they still assuming that the Ghanaian consumer is stupid?�
�They are making the same arguments that the Kufuor administration made which they rejected; I feel so ashamed about this�, he admitted.
Mr Pratt also wondered: �How do you have a regulator in a deregulated environment?�It doesn�t make sense�.
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