Pius Enam Hadzide
Prices of petroleum products in Ghana are expected to further reduce this week.
Government is hopeful the drop in prices may lead to reduction in transport fares.
The current Akufo-Addo administration is optimistic the living standards of the masses would improve due to the sharp fall in inflation from 15.4 percent to 9.3 percent.
Deputy Minister of Information, Pius Enam Hadzide, made this known to journalists in Accra on Sunday, December 16 during the Information Ministry’s biweekly press briefings.
He said that “fuel prices which have also been experiencing an uptick over a two-month period have also been on a gradual decline in recent weeks. Indeed government expects a further drop in fuel prices by an average 5.8% reduction for petrol, 4.8% reduction for diesel and 2.46% reduction for LPG.”
He explained that the expected reduction is occasioned by the marginal strength of the cedi and prices across the world, adding that “these reductions come on the back of various interventions that have been designed to bring relief to the good people of Ghana, including reduction in some 14 tax handles in 2017, reduction in electricity tariffs, reduction in taxes on petroleum products from 40 to 26%, taking up of senior high school fees by government.”
He said the expected reductions in fuel prices and inflation are to bring “more relief to Ghanaians.”
“The administration is optimistic that the drop in inflation and fuel will therefore add another layer to the work being done in these first 24 months to ease the legacy burden on Ghanaians.”
Previous Reductions
Earlier this month, some leading petroleum companies in the country started reducing their prices in line with changing trends on the global petroleum market.
Ghana Oil Company (GOIL) led to the industry to reduce prices of its fuel: it charged GH¢20 4.98 for diesel.
Vivo Energy Ghana Limited, marketers and distributors of shell-branded products, followed suit by reducing the ex-pump prices in the first window of December 2018.
Shell announced a GH¢0.05p (5 pesewas) per litre at the pump from 6pm on December 2, this year.
According to the deputy minister, “The Akufo-Addo administration continues with efforts to further reduce the hardship of Ghanaians inherited upon assumption of power.”
He said the “two major recent interventions which we expect will further reduce the legacy burden on Ghanaians are the further drop in inflation to 9.3% and an expected reduction in fuel prices this week.”
Inflation has recorded a continued fall since January 2017 and has dropped from 15.4 percent in December 2016, and is now at a six-year low of 9.3 percent.
The deputy minister observed that the fall in the inflationary rate was having a positive impact on incomes of Ghanaians.
He said “what this means is that if in December 2016 the prices of goods and services were increasing at 15.4 % (Annual Progress Report, 2016), now through the policies of the administration, the rate of price increases has slowed down to 9.3% enabling Ghanaians to retain more money in their pockets and reduce their hardship.”
Measures
He disclosed that the government took some deliberate steps upon assuming office in January 2017 to reduce the inflation rate to 9.3 percent currently.
According to him, “Specifically, measures such as fiscal consolidation, monetary policy tightening, relative exchange rate stability for most part of 2017, as well as easing inflationary pressures were implemented to deal with the high rate of inflation the government inherited.
By Melvin Tarlue