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's floor to be considered urgent to address the high debt within the energy sector.
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 the Energy and Green Transition Minister, at the time, a litre of fuel was sold at GH¢16.00, a level considered too exorbitant for consumers to take up.
He further noted that the sterling performance of the Mahama administration has 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 highlighted.
According to him, the government should introduce the levy now, as it has done, rather than to wait till things escalate, as was done in the past by the NPP government.
"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 added.
Parliament approved the levy on Tuesday, June 3, sparking widespread public criticism, especially by opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament.
Mr Jinapor reaffirmed the government’s commitment to ensuring transparency and accountability in the utilisation of the funds, calling on Ghanaians to view the measure as an investment in national development.
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