Page 11 - AfrOil Week 48 2021

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

El Molla and Elharrar discussed opportunities The Egyptian-Israeli MoU acknowledged the
to support joint co-operation in the oil and gas pivotal role gas is likely to play during the next
field to optimise economic benefit for both sides. phase of the transition from fossil fuels to clean
The two countries are planning to use exist- energies within the framework of global efforts
ing pipelines to transport hydrogen in the future. to achieve net-zero emissions. It described gas
Over the past few months, a joint Egyptian-Is- as a transitional fuel whose use in the Eastern
raeli working group has held several meetings Mediterranean has helped reduce emissions,
to conduct a comprehensive review of the pos- especially after the sharp decline in the use of
sibility of expanding gas supplies for re-export. coal and petroleum in Egypt and Israel. ™

Ghana’s opposition demands

scrapping of two fuel levies

GHANA GHANA’S parliamentary opposition has (PRSL) component of the fuel price for only two
demanded that the Akufo-Addo administration months.
urgently scrap two levies on petroleum products Nonetheless, the Institute for Energy Secu-
to give Ghanaians some respite. rity (IES) last month expressed worry that the
The charges in question, which apply to government may not have an immediate solu-
fuel bought at the pump, are the sanitation levy tion to the problem of consistently rising fuel
($0.016/litre) and the special petroleum levy prices at the pump.
($0.075/litre). Both were introduced in last The Executive Director of the IES, Nana
year’s budget, and the opposition argues that the Amoasi VII, described the government’s
government can do without them. approach to dealing with the surge in fuel prices
During a debate on the 2022 Budget and as “knee-jerk.”
Economic Policy on the floor of parliament on He said: “If care is not taken, we will see this
November 24, Edward Bawa, who represents price surging on the market consistently. You
Bongo in the the Upper East region, argued that will ask how the government will negotiate to
Ghanaians were already paying by other meth- solve the situation, but unfortunately, where the
ods for the services supposedly financed by the government sits today, it will be able to reduce
sanitation levy. He pointed out that local assem- these taxes by more than 10 percent and the
blies (at metropolitan, municipal and district approach the government has taken, we call it
levels) pay about $13,000 for fumigation and knee-jerk because it is not sustainable.”
another $6,500 for sanitation implementation Amoasi continued: “There are other things
programmes. the government must do to ensure that fuel
As to the special petroleum levy, he noted prices remain stable. You can take away all the
that it had been introduced in 2014 to augment taxes, but trust me because we have mechanisms
government revenue as crude oil prices nose- that have broken down, we will still come to the
dived. Additionally, he pointed out that a “sunset same GHS0.068 per litre in less than six months
clause” included in the relevant legislation had because we have become price takers.”
provided for the levy to be removed in 2017. Meanwhile, strike threats by the Chamber of
“We are convinced that these are some of the Petroleum Consumers-Ghana (COPEC GH)
taxes we can do without and still be okay, because and other transport groupings have still not
we are either paying in one way or the other or subsided. ™
their purpose of introduction is defeated. What
we are saying is that there should be an immedi-
ate cessation of those charges so that Ghanaians
have some level of reprieve,” Bawa said.
This is not the first time that the minority in
Ghana’s Parliament has made such demands.
Last month, members of the opposition had
demanded that the government review and
scrap taxes on petroleum products, which
they argued account for about 40% of the price
build-up in the 2022 budget.
Petroleum products have experienced a spike
in prices since April of this year. The Ghanaian
government had earlier promised to remove
the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levies Opposition MP Bawa (Photo: Facebook/Edward Bawa)

Week 48 01•December•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11