The Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Jinapor, has justified the new petroleum levy of GHC 1.00, adding that the right time to implement such a levy is now.
According to the minister, it is a very prudent fiscal intervention needed to bring stability to Ghana’s energy sector.
During the Parliamentary session on Tuesday, June 3, 2025, the Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, brought the bill to Parliament to be considered urgent to address the high debt within the energy sector.
Mr.John Jinapor
The Finance Minister posited that, due to the reduction in the rate and the fall of the Dollar, it is expedient to introduce a Petroleum tax of GHC 1 on every litre of petroleum product purchased by the consumer.
Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, Mr. John Jinapor elucidated that the government, under President John Dramani Mahama, restricted itself from introducing new levies because the cost of petroleum products at the time had skyrocketed.
According to him, at the time, fuel prices were hovering around GH¢16.00 per litre, a level deemed too burdensome for consumers to absorb additional charges.
However, he noted that recent interventions by the government have led to a reduction in fuel prices to approximately GH¢13.00 per litre, creating what he said was a reasonable window to introduce the levy.
“Fuel was around GH¢16.00, and a sensitive government will not slap a tax when fuel is GH¢16.00. You couldn’t have imposed that tax around that time when fuel was still very high, and so you needed to work to bring fuel down to this level and share the gain with Ghanaians. At that time, if we had increased it, you can imagine the impact on Ghanaians, but today, the net effect is that you are still having a reduction of GH¢3.00 on a litre of fuel,” John Jinapor expounded.
“It is better to do it today than to have done it yesterday, when it would have eroded your income; today, your purchasing power has increased because of the reduction of the value of the dollar,” he emphasised.
