Court Strikes Out 'Illegal' Fuel Tax On Ghanaians

An Accra High Court has ruled that the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) should scrap the ex-refinery differential tax which was imposed on Ghanaians without parliamentary approval. The court also directed that an amount of GHc 661 million surplus accrued thereof since June 2009 should be deposited into the Consolidated Fund on behalf of Ghanaians. The NPP�s parliamentary candidate for Obuasi, Kweku Kwarteng, took the matter to court two years ago challenging the propriety of the tax. He claimed that the ex-refinery differential component of the ex-refinery price imposed by NPA and TOR on June 5, 2009 was illegal and that the ex-pump prices announced by the first defendant on June 5, 2009, on the basis of the ex-refinery prices referred to, were not in accordance with the prescribed petroleum pricing formula and therefore unlawful. On Monday, Justice Patrick Bayerh, an Accra High Court ruled in favour of Mr Kwarteng. Speaking to Citi News after the court ruling, Mr. Kwarteng�s lawyer Alex Abban said the ruling essentially means that fuel prices may have to go down.