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The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Parliament has launched a scathing attack on government over the acute shortage of the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) throughout the country, asking government not to blame taxi drivers for the scarcity of the commodity. Unlike what pertained during the NPP administration where vehicles moved from house to house selling LPG to consumers, gas has been in short supply under the current administration for months, resulting in both domestic and commercial users carrying cylinders from one filing station to another, desperately searching for the product. The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has attributed the shortage of the product to its excessive use by taxi drivers and lack of adequate infrastructure put in place by the previous NPP administration. However, addressing journalists at Parliament House yesterday, the Minority caucus said President Atta Mills� administration could not use commercial drivers who ran their vehicles on LPG as �scapegoats� for its incompetence in providing enough gas for consumers. �Has the use of LPG by commercial vehicles, particularly taxi drivers alone, only become a new phenomenon in Ghana since 2009 when Atta Mills took over the administration of this country?� the Ranking member on Energy, Joseph Kofi Adda quizzed, adding that the NDC should have had the foresight to cater for the increasing demand by providing adequate supply of the product. Flanked by former Energy Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah and other colleagues, the Minority Spokesperson on Energy pointed out that the crippling of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) by the Mills administration had contributed to the acute shortage of LPG, asking government to get the refinery back in operation. Taxi drivers, the Minority further opined, should not be blamed for the �incompetent and corrupt manner in which the NDC government is running the affairs of the nation. The taxi drivers should not be blamed; perhaps the �greedy bastards� should be made to tone down on �grabbing� activities. TOR should be allowed to operate fully and independently�. According to him, if TOR were allowed to operate freely and refine crude oil as it had done under the NPP administration, Ghanaians would not be queuing for gas. �The NDC government�s disruption of the production process of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) by permitting GNPC (Ghana National Petroleum Corporation) to usurp the role of TOR in the lifting of crude oil, no doubt, has significantly reduced the domestic supply available to the nation, leaving a gap that has not been filed through imports by BDCs (Bulk Distribution Companies),� Mr. Adda noted. �The failure of Atta Mills� NDC government to stick to good practices in terms of corporate governance, while he (Mills) only sat unconcerned to permit the �greedy bastards� to handle the nation�s crude oil imports for selfish commercial interests, nearly run TOR aground,� he added. On government�s allegation that the NPP had failed to provide adequate infrastructure for supply and storage of gas, former Minister of Energy, Albert Kan Dapaah who is also the MP for Afigya-Sekyere West, debunked the claim, pointing out that the Kufuor administration provided more facilities than the current government and that was why gas was never in short supply when NPP was in power. The Minority spokesperson on Energy, Kofi Adda, lamented that the failure of the NDC administration to pay under recoveries to the BDCs regularly, over the past two years, had made them stop lifting LPG into the country. The BDCs, he noted, had to �withdraw their services from the importation of LPG because they do not find it attractive as their businesses were being crippled�. �As we speak, it is only one company by name Fuel Trade that has remained as the only BDC engaged in LPG importation,� Mr. Adda noted, adding that but for government�s recent payment in June of six months� arrears of under recoveries that was owed it, Fuel Trade would have also stopped lifting gas into the country.