We introduced measure, though worked they couldn't stop the impact on our economy - Kojo Oppong Nkrumah

The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has indicated that, much as there are calls for government to help mitigate the fuel hikes, the reality is that government has no money to cushion the Ghanaians.

He said some measures were put in place to tackle the situation, though worked, the impact of covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war were delving a heavy blow on the economy.

Answering some questions from Ghanaians last night on ‘The Probe’ on Joy News, he said regarding incessant fuel hikes, government reduced some three margins in the price build-up to help cushion the Ghanaian while trying to engage transport organizations.

“In Ghana for example, take fuel. I hear a lot of people say why can’t government subsidize fuel? The reality is that, there is no money there to subsidize fuel. Indeed, rather the reserve is that, government has some taxes and levies and margins that were on fuel products. In February, when the war started and the economies predicted we were going to have problems, government came out and I recall coming out and speaking and saying that we are going to introduce some measures and structures on the instructions of the president to help mitigate the situation so we took away about three margins; yes we didn’t touch the taxes.

“So about three margins, UPPF margin, fuel marking margin, BOST margin, we reduced them in our bid to mitigate the situation. We said we’d engage better with transport companies to see that they don’t escalate because it will further escalate in that regime. In the last one week we have assessed how all of these measures have fared and we have come to a firm view that the global impact was so severe that some of the measures we have introduced though they have worked are not able to stop the impact on the Ghanaian,” he told the host.