Tightening The Screws

Yesterday ended on a scary note. The imposition of some 17.5% Value Added Tax on petroleum products was the basis of the apprehension hounding Ghanaians.

It was the only portion of the budget statement which swept across the country like wildfire through dry grassland.

The question almost all Ghanaians—the rich, the middle class and of course, the wretched of the earth—posed was about whether we can contain the accompanying fallouts from the palpable increase in the pump price of fuel.

Imagine how much fares the already impoverished citizenry will pay beyond the current rates. We dread the consequences of the increase occasioned by the VAT increase.

We recall with disappointment the promise by President John Dramani Mahama that 2015 will come with bountiful economic goodies. The indications are that he did not tell us the truth about what lies in store for us.

The economic fallouts from the implementation of the new VAT rate on petroleum products are too grim to be imagined.

It is instructive that such an increase is coming at a time when the international price of crude oil has witnessed an unprecedented slump.

From all indications, government is clueless about the economic challenges of the country and is unable to go on without recourse to painful increases, even when these are not in the interest of the people in both the short and long run.

We are appalled at what discussions really went into the decision to increase the VAT rate on petroleum products. Perhaps at the eleventh hour government might have a change of heart, given the public outcry that this would generate across the country.

Let government be mindful about the fallouts from such a show of mindlessness of the plight of the people. Many are unable to cope with the already challenging economic times, let alone the new tightening of the screws.

We shudder to think that a government which prides itself as being socialist in nature and averse to property ownership, would be so uncaring about the situation of people in whose interest they claim to be working.

There could be unsavoury consequences to this inappropriate VAT increase, especially as the people are privy to stories about unusual instances of corruption and open thievery of the public purse.

We are in the situation in which we are today because of bad governance. Should innocent persons who were fooled during elections to vote for the ruling party suffer for the poor management of the economy by those who promised them manna from heaven? God save this beautiful country whose people do not deserve what they are suffering at the hands of an uncaring bunch of leaders.