Fuel prices up but Minister of State says G4O policy has helped

Fuel prices have seen upward adjustments at the pumps barely 24 hours after the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, presented government’s mid-year budget review.

A visit to the pumps by 3news.com on Tuesday, August 1 showed that Petrol and Diesel are selling at GH¢12.95 per litre from the previous GH¢12.45.

Speaking in an exclusive interview on TV3‘s New Day on Tuesday, August 1, Minister of State at the Finance Ministry Dr Mohammed Amin Adam Anta insists that the situation could have been worse but for government’s pragmatic policies.

“Fuel prices would have gone higher than that,” he stressed.

“You know the Gold for Oil Programme that we initiated, it has helped a lot,” the former Deputy Energy Minister told host Berla Mundi.

“If you want to follow the international market as far as movement in fuel prices are concerned, it will be much higher than what is in Ghana today.”

The Karaga Member of Parliament (MP) insisted that government considers dearly the effect of such hikes in prices on the ordinary citizen and so deliberately puts mitigating factors to ease the burden.

“We bear with the circumstances,” he had earlier said. “They are difficult times but we are not siting down and doing nothing.”

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‘Stockout’
The Minister of State said some countries have declared a “stockout” as a result of the high prices but Ghana continues to supply crude products to consumers without any interruptions.

“As I speak to you, while global prices of petroleum products are increasing, some other countries are declaring stockout,” he said, citing Senegal, The Gambia and neighbours Ivory Coast.

“So, if you are faced with having shortage of products and having uninterrupted supply of the products, even if the price is a little higher, what will you go for?” he quizzed.

For him, so far as the long queues in a country like Nigeria are absent in Ghana, “it simply shows our efficiency in the management of the petroleum sector”.

Source:3news.com