Former Deputy Minister for Power, John Jinapor has warned government against any plans of increasing energy sector levies in 2019 Mid-year budget.
This follows the struggle by government to clear debts in the energy sector in the face of threats of shutdown by Independent Power Producers who claim that the leading power distributor Power Distribution Services owes them an estimated US$300million as at June 2019.
The 2019 Mid-year budget review is set to be presented to Parliament on Wednesday 17th July 2019.
Being disturbed by the increase in the energy sector debt and what he alleges is the mismanagement of the sector, Mr. Jinapor fears the government may be considering desperate measures raise money to deal with the situation.
He has hence sent a strong word of caution to the Finance Minister and government to desist from attempting to increase levies captured in Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA) in a bid to raise money stating that any such attempt will be will strongly resisted by Ghanaians.
“Therefore, having failed to fulfill the promise of scrapping the Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA) as promised in the run up to the 2016 elections, I wish to caution the Akufo-Addo government to refrain from any attempt aimed at increasing the levies from ESLA in the imminent 2019 Mid-year budget review because this will be resisted vehemently.”
Story by: Karen Quaye/Radiogoldlive.com
