Fuel Prices To Go Down After 'Illegal' Tax Scrapped

The Deputy Energy Minister, Inusah Fuseini, has disclosed fuel prices will be adjusted downwards at the pumps after the ex-differential tax imposed on Ghanaians was scrapped. His announcement follows an Accra High Court ruling on Monday that the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) should expunge the ex-refinery differential tax which was imposed on Ghanaians without parliamentary approval. The court also directed that the accrued surplus since June 2009, which the plaintiffs estimated to be in the region of GHc 661 million, should be deposited into the Consolidated Fund on behalf of Ghanaians. Speaking to Citi News on Tuesday, Hon. Fuseini emphasized that the fuel prices will be adjusted downwards, but the NPA will take the necessary steps to appeal against the ruling. The NPP�s parliamentary candidate for Obuasi, Kweku Kwarteng, took the matter to court two years ago challenging the propriety of the tax. He claimed that the ex-refinery differential component of the ex-refinery price imposed by NPA and TOR on June 5, 2009 was illegal and that the ex-pump prices announced by the first defendant on June 5, 2009, on the basis of the ex-refinery prices referred to, were not in accordance with the prescribed petroleum pricing formula and therefore unlawful.