Ghanaians should prepare to pay more to settle debts accumulated through the ineffectiveness of utility companies and government’s negligence.
President John Mahama, who disclosed this to journalists at the Flagstaff House in Accra, said Ghana has lost billions of cedis to due the drop in crude oil prices.
“At the time when God has blessed us to have the price go down 37 percent, we are still even 11 percent lower. We take a little money and say look let’s all contribute and pay off this debt because we all use that power that VRA generates. I don’t see what really we have done wrong,” he added.
“The price of petroleum products has gone down by more than 37 percent. And so even with the introduction of the energy levies at an average of about between 26 and 27 percent, we still are below the deregulation point by almost 11 percent. So we have not gotten to where prices were even before.”
President Mahama said there were no alternatives to the decisions he had taken because the others were worse.
Paradoxical stance
On the world market, Brent crude fell to below $30 a barrel for the first time since 2004 last Wednesday.
Consumers cannot fathom why Ghana, a net importer of crude, is not benefitting from the low world crude oil prices.
In the New Year, Ghanaians were hit with an average 33 percent increase at the pump.
Also in December, the PURC increased utility tariffs by over 50 percent.
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