Govt asked to cut down taxes on petroleum products

Tema, April 19, GNA - Mr Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, the TUC General- Secretary, on Tuesday reiterated the stance of the TUC leadership on the need for the government to cut down taxes on petroleum products. ''Petroleum products are used by the largest population in the country and any high increase in its prices have serious effect on every economic life because transportation will go high and this automatically affects prices of goods.''

The General-Secretary said this when he briefed members of the Tema District Council of Labour (TDCL) on consultations between the government and the TUC on the fuel price increase and the minimum wage. Some members accused the leadership of the TUC for acting too slow in taking decisions on the minimum wage and the fuel price increase. ''TUC's actions should have been earlier than that of the "wahala" demonstrations,'' they added.

They also accused the leadership of TUC for not consulting members at the grassroots level for their views before taking decisions on the minimum wage.

They expressed concern about the serious impact of the high fuel increase on other products and appealed to the government to consider reducing prices on kerosene and LPG Gas to make it affordable for the ordinary Ghanaian.

They also appealed to the government to consider the current economic hardships of the Ghanaian worker and increase the minimum wage that stands at 13,500 cedis.