NPA Boss schools ‘ignorant’ John Jinapor on Price Stabilization and Recovery Levy

The Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority(NPA) Hassan Tampuli is asking the former deputy Minister of Power John Abdulai Jinapor to broaden his scope of knowledge about the Price Stabilization and Recovery Levy (of the Energy Sector Levy Act 899 of 2015 as Amended under Act 946) since he appears to be ignorant about it.

He believes the former deputy Minister who is also the Member of Parliament for Yapei-Kusawgu will do himself good if he take a second look at the law before commenting on government planned Price Stabilization and Recovery levy reduction.

“I think hon. John Jinapor has not study the law properly so he should go back and study it properly,” he advised.

His comment follows concerns raised by Hon. John Jinapor in a statement he issued regarding government decision to cushion Ghanaians by reducing price stabilization levy for diesel and LPG from 10 pesewas per litre to 3 pesewas.

The former deputy Minister argued that government's decision was in breach of Section 5 of Act 899 which states that; “The Minister shall cause to be opened and maintained an account known as the Price Stabilization and Recovery Levy to provide: Buffer for under-recoveries in the petroleum sector, subsidize petroleum prices as well as subsidize pre-mix and residual fuel oil.”

“It is important to remind the NPA that Article 175 of the Constitution explicitly states that no taxation shall be imposed otherwise than by or under the authority of an Act of Parliament.

“It further states that where an Act, enacted in accordance with this article, confers power on any person or authority to waive or vary a tax imposed by that Act, the exercise of the power of waiver or variation, in favour of any person or authority, shall be subject to the prior approval of Parliament by resolution,” he stated.

John Jinapor further argued that Section 8 (Interpretations) specifically stated that the Minister responsible for the oversight administration of the PSRL is the Minister of Finance and not the Minister of Energy.

But speaking on Oman FM’s, National Agenda Show, Mr. Hassan Tampuli claimed the New Patriotic Party administration led by President Nana Akufo-Addo knows the law better than the opposition National Democratic Congress hence cannot breach the law.

He explained that before the government took the decision it revised the law and also consulted legal opinion before arriving at the decision.

"We know the law better than them ........we have reviewed the law and we have gotten legal opinion so if he thinks we don’t have the capacity to do what we’re doing then he should challenge it in court or bring it on the floor of Parliament,” he said.

"If the price of fuel goes up and they are making noise they don't say we should take it to Parliament but when we want to reduce it, you are now saying we should take it to Parliament," he quizzed.

He noted that the Yapei-Kusawgu MP’s repugnant action is borne out of sheer jealous because he thinks government will be scoring political points since the opposition National Democratic Congress was unable to do such a thing when they were in power.

He continued that "If John Jinapor is not happy that we have reduced the Price Stabilization and Recovery levy , then I want to let him know that that Ghanaians are happy that at least fuel prices will not experience astronomical increases during the Christmas season but will remain stable. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Ghanaian people and we feel their pain.”

“I suspect he has too much money in his pocket to pay astronomical price of fuel but that is not what we see about Ghanaian people,” he said.

#Latestinghana #Headlinesnews #News