The African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has questioned why Ghanaians should continue to pay for the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Debt Recovery Fund Levy for the next 10 years, and demanded that government account for the revenue that has accrued so far.
The levy was introduced by the government in 2007 in a bid to service the massive debt of TOR, which stood at GHC450 million at the time. After nine years, operators of the fund announced this week that Ghanaians will continue to pay for the levy for the next 10 years, something that ACEP has questioned.
Executive Director of the ACEP, Dr Mohammed Amin Adams, argued there is no justification for the government to continue charging Ghanaians after all these years. “They need to tell Ghanaians what led to the current state. Is it debt capital accumulation [or] is it interest accumulation you and I don’t know?
If the funds that have been collected are not sufficient to pay the debts they need to tell the Ghanaians,” he charged. He added: “Even though the minister had to go to parliament to break it down he didn’t go. We are being told that there is a debt of GHC970 [million] that is not acceptable. Ghanaians need to know the breakdown”.
Dr Adams charged the government to judiciously use internally generated funds as against burdening the ordinary Ghanaian unnecessarily. “Wrong and politically expedient decisions made by government are the reason we are paying for these levies.
We as a people must be careful and find measures that will serve the national good. We must be serious in managing our assets so we do not pay more levies inn future,” he stated.
Source: 3news.com
