Parliament passes Petroleum Bill

Page 3, March 7, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah, Daniel Nkrumah
PARLIAMENT on Thursday passed the Customs and Excise (Petroleum Taxes and Petroleum Levies) (Amendment) Bill, 2009 to reduce excise duty on petroleum products.
The passage of the bill was in response to the proposed reduction of taxes on petroleum products as announced by the Minister of Finance, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, when he presented the 2009 budget to Parliament.
By the passage of the bill, it is expected that the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) will make the necessary announcement to reflect the reduction in petroleum prices.
According to the report of the Finance Committee, excise duty taxes on the various petroleum product would be as follows:
Premium petrol excise duty tax will be reduced from 7.1800Gp per litre to 2.7800Gp per litre, while that of gas oil will be reduced from 6.2000Gp per litre to 1.800Gp per litre. Excise duty tax on kerosene will be reduced from 4.5375Gp per litre to 1.0375 Gp per litre, while that on liquefied petroleum gas will go down from 7.2246Gp per litre to 0.7246 Gp per litre.
For marine gas oil (local), the reduction in excise duty tax is from 3.9945Gp per litre to 0.2945Gp per litre, while residual fuel oil will have excise duty tax reduced from 5.2094Gp per litre to 3.2094Gp per litre.
Excise duty tax on unified gasoline will go down from 7.1820Gp per litre to 2.7800Gp per litre.
Dr Duffuor moved the motion for the passage of the bill and he was seconded by the Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Mr James Klutse Afedzi.
In seconding the motion, Mr Avedzi said the committee had been informed that the reduction measures, as contained in the bill, would result in a revenue loss of about GH¢5 million per month. Thus for the remaining 10 months of the year, it would cost the nation a total of GH¢50 million.
Contributing to the ensuing debate, the Ranking Member of the Finance Committee, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, said the House expected the Finance Minister to come back to explain how the revenue that would be lost as a result of the passage of the bill would be recovered.
He said the Minority appreciated the difficulty in which the government found itself after making an electoral promise.
The MP for Afigya Sekyere, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, stated that the removal of the excise duty taxes from petroleum products would not have any significant impact on Ghanaians “but we will support our friends opposite to fulfil their electoral promise”.