COPEC to haul govt to court over Energy Sector Levies

quist

January 6, 2016 8:45 AM

The group’s lawyers are currently studying documents of the increases to ensure that consumers are not ripped off by government.

The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC) is threatening to take serious legal actions against the Ministry of Finance if the New Energy Sector Levies passed in parliament on December 23 are not revoked.

The group has described the new levies as needless contravention of the Petroleum Pricing Formula as stipulated under the Full Petroleum Downstream Deregulation policy captured under the revised National Petroleum Authority Act.Prices of petroleum products have gone up by margins as high as 27% due to the imposition of the new energy sector levies.Executive Secretary of COPEC, Mr. Duncan Amoah emphasised the coalition's resolve to go to take every step necessary to get government to revise or completely revoke the levies.“we need to make a serious case to government that we will not allow government rip us off by smuggling taxes through parliament to flout their own deregulation policy. It appears that when it is the consumers turn to enjoy lower prices from the international market, government sneaks in to impose needless taxes” he stressed.Mr. Amoah noted that there exists an opportunity to prevent governments in future from interfering with petroleum pricing the way they have been doing in the past.“As we have entered deregulation, I think we will explore those options further and ensure that subsequent or future governments do not take the citizenry for a bad ride anytime they so wish, as far as petroleum issues and pricing are concerned,”he added.

quist