Organised labour expresses shock at fuel price increases
Organised labour has expressed shock and total disbelief at what it terms the astronomical increases in the ex-pump prices of petroleum products by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
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It said the decision by the NPA and the government to increase the prices of petroleum products at this time was, to say the least, insensitive.
“Clearly, our government has lost touch with or failed to appreciate the economic and social difficulties and hardships of many of our compatriots. By its actions, the government is further distancing itself from the concerns of the people. The announced increases will only aggravate the hardship and misery many Ghanaian families are going through,” it said in a statement issued in Accra yesterday.
It was signed by representatives of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA) and the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG).
According to labour, the increases had far-reaching effects on the prices of a wide range of goods and services and came at a time when Ghanaians were faced with very difficult economic conditions.
“These astronomical price hikes have become the hallmark of government and governance. Since January 2013, the ex-pump price of premium has been increased by 96.72 per cent. From January 1 to July 14, 2014, the ex-pump price of premium has been increased by 44.21 per cent and we are only halfway into the year,” it noted.
Disapproval
The statement said labour, with other stakeholders, would, in the coming days, use all legitimate means to express in the strongest possible terms “our disapproval of, not only the current pricing regime for fuel and other utilities but equally and importantly on the prevailing economic and social conditions”.
It said labour did not want to believe that the government viewed “governance only as passing on increasing prices, taxes and charges to the Ghanaian people without any way of gauging the impact of such increases on our well-being”.
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It said if that were the purpose of governance, then it would not be worth the expenditure incurred for its functions, stressing that the prices of petroleum products were reaching unaffordable levels for many Ghanaians.
The statement said 2014 was the year when the government could not increase salaries and yet it had the confidence to pile those stellar increases on Ghanaians.
No Justification
“Organised labour finds no economic or social justification for the upward spiral in the prices of petroleum products that the NPA and the government continue to force down the throats of Ghanaians,” it said.
The statement said given the rapid fall in the value of the cedi, the current pricing formula for fuel punished consumers and must be reviewed.
“The exchange rate has now become a key driver of petroleum products price increases. It is simply unfair for Ghanaians to be compelled to pay higher for fuel whenever the government, by its policies, mismanages the exchange rate. With the rapid depreciation of the cedi, the continued indexation of fuel prices to the dollar/cedi exchange rate is no longer tenable,” it said.
Pricing formula
“The fuel pricing formula has outlived its usefulness. We expect the managers of the economy to come up with a better and more efficient way of implementing the fuel-pricing system. The current system of passing on the resultant losses in exchange rate depreciation to Ghanaians is insensitive and unsustainable. The government can do better,” it stated.
It said given the prevailing economic challenges in the country and the high cost of living, a subsidy regime on petroleum products was necessary “to shield majority of the population who are on fixed incomes or receive no regular incomes from further hardships”.
The statement noted that the economy was structured in such a way that the impact of those hikes was largely felt in ‘trotro’ fares and in market prices of goods and services, rendering baseless the assumption that fuel subsidies benefited the rich, to the exclusion of the poor, adding that most of the rich had free fuel from their employers or organisations.