Use Revenue Windfall from Global crude price Hikes to Cushion Ghanaians’ plight – Minority

ALFIX

2 years ago

The Minority caucus in parliament has called on the government to use a portion of the revenue windfall from the global crude price hike to cushion Ghanaians, especially at the fuel pumps to lessen the plight of ordinary Ghanaians.

According to the Ranking Member of the Energy Committee, Hon John Abdulai Jinapor, the country is making huge revenue from the global;l hike price has shored up the revenue and same should use reduce the burden.

He made this known in a press statement issued after the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) report indicated Ghana made a windfall revenue of over $731.94 million from Ghana oil revenue

Full Statement

GHANA MAKES A HUGE REVENUE WINDFALL FROM GLOBAL CRUDE PRICE HIKES!

Contrary to the narrative by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia-led government that the Russia/Ukraine war is impacting negatively on revenue mobilization on all fronts, the evidence as contained in the 2022 semi-annual report on Petroleum receipts has revealed that Ghana is making huge windfalls from the sale of crude oil, royalties, tax payments and surface rentals from the three oil producing fields bequeathed to the current NPP Government.

Section 4.1 (page 31) of the PIAC report confirms that an amount of $731.94 million was realised from Ghana’s oil resources in the first half of 2022. This amount is equivalent to about GH¢6.7billion (using an exchange rate of $1 to GH¢9.2) which has already surpassed the total annual projected Petroleum revenues estimated at GH¢6,628 million under paragraph 253 of the 2022 Annual Budget statement presented to Parliament in November 2021.

From this development, it is obvious that Ghana is on course to achieving quadruple or more of the originally projected revenues from the Jubilee, TEN, and Sankofa Gye-Nyame fields for the 2022 fiscal year.

In addition, other revenue handles have witnessed significant positive out-turns over and above their projected targets.

For instance, the 2022 Fiscal data report from the Ministry of Finance reveals that the Price Stabilisation & Recovery Levy alone has so far accrued GH¢798,021,065 as compared to a projected figure of GH¢269,348,015, which is almost 300% more than the revenue target for the first two quarters of the year, 2022.

We, therefore, wish to reiterate our position that some portions of these extraordinary windfalls can be used to cushion the ordinary consumer in terms of soft subsidies at the pumps.

It is important to remind the Economic Management Team (EMT) under Dr. Bawumia that a liter of diesel currently sells at the pumps at a whopping GH¢65.25 leading to severe hardships and suffering across the country.

Ghana is indeed blessed with abundant natural resources generating significant revenues to the national purse, the hard truth is that the current economic hardships can only be the result of bad leadership and poor decision-making by the current managers of the economy.