Statement: CJA condems fuel price increases

The Committee for Joint Action (CJA) condemns the recent increase of the prices of petroleum products without reservation. In our view the increases betray the principles which underlined the election campaign of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2004 and 2008. It is also an indication of the growing insensitivity of the Ghanaian political elite to the worsening plight of the working people and the underprivileged.

The CJA is shocked by the fact that the NDC administration is today repeating the same justification put forward by the Kufour government for fuel price increases. These justifications have ranged from the need to remove imaginary subsidies to the imperative of combating fuel smuggling across Ghana's borders.

The claim that Government is subsiding the prices of petroleum products is at best fraudulent having regard to the numerous taxes which have been imposed on the products. In making this claim the CJA has also taken into account the fact that ex-refinery prices used in calculating ex-pump prices are assumed and could be far away from real cost.

As a fact, increases in the prices of petroleum products have a ripple effect throughout the economy and ought not to be done without proper consideration of its social, economic and political impact.

We call on the Government to reverse its decision on fuel price increases as a matter of urgency.

Convenor,
Kwasi Adu