Gov't squeezing everything out of Ghanaians - KT Hammond

Source: citifmonline.com  -  The Mahama administration has been accused of financially burdening Ghanaians with the frequent increases in petroleum and utility prices.

Former Deputy Energy Minister, K T Hammond was of the view that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government has breached its contract with Ghanaians.

“The contract was not vote for me and I will skin you alive, vote for me and we will take the very oxygen of your existence out of you; that wasn’t the contract. The contract was that government was going to make life reasonable for the good people of Ghana. It doesn’t make sense to me…”

From Wednesday, July 1, 2015, Ghanaians will pay 15% more for petroleum products.

Electricity and water tariffs have been increased by 51.73% and 15% respectively.

In an interview on Eyewitness News, K T Hammond charged the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC) to give further details on what went into the calculations which resulted in the 52% increment.

The Minority spokesperson on energy said Ghanaians should have no sympathy for utility companies.

“I do not have any sympathy for those who operate the system and keep telling us that the system is suffering, the system is suffering.”

He blamed the lack of revenue on “mismanagement and I for one, I have no sympathy for them at all.”

According to him, Ghanaians pay their taxes, therefore it is the duty of the government “to complement the agenda by at least, fulfilling its part of the social contract.”

“We all know crude oil prices are down; we do know that gas is not very expensive and we are getting our own gas from the Jubilee Fields, Nigeria is supplying us a little bit of gas through the West African gas pipeline; that put together with whatever we are getting out of hydro complement, it should not be this difficult for us.”

The Adansi Asokwa Member of Parliament (MP) said the frequent increment in petroleum prices is not as a result of the deregulation the government claims it is undertaking.

He alleged that Ghana is currently operating “an IMF false regime which stipulates that in every two weeks, they should make sure fuel prices were adjusted not downwards but upwards so that seems to be the situation.”

“They have decided that deregulation or no deregulation, they are going to increase… They should run the economy to the glory of God.”