NPP hits hard at Moses Asaga for his “arrogant posture”

The New Patriotic Party has described justifications of fuel price hikes by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) boss, Moses Asaga as “unfortunate”.

The National Petroleum Authority (NPA), last Saturday increased petroleum products by 9% with effect from Sunday, May 17, 2015. Petrol will now be sold at GHc3.33 per litre while Diesel will be sold at GHc3.24, per litre. A kilogram of LPG is expected to be sold at GHc2.88, MGO Local will go up GHc2.96. Unified petroleum is expected to go up by 4% while Kerosene will be up by 9%. However, prices of premix fuel and RFO remain the same.

The NPA boss explained that, the increment was triggered by price increase of the commodities on the world market. He told Citi FM: “As we talk now, people can now afford at least the 28 pesewas addition…but if we didn’t do that, then all your generators will not run because there will be no fuel and even if there was fuel, there will be hoarding and you will even pay double the price.”

“If we had not increased the litre by 28 pesewas and had allowed shortages to come in, the dumsor problem would have been worse for those with generators because you cannot get diesel or petrol to put in your generator.”

But a statement signed by the Communications Director of the NPP, Nana Akomea, described the justification as depicts Mr. Asaga’s arrogance.“The remarks made by Moses Asaga, the CEO of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), which have been subsequently reproduced on several online media platforms accusing our Presidential Candidate of "intellectual dishonesty," are unfortunate”“The ‘crime’ committed by Nana Akufo-Addo, to warrant this damnation by the CEO of the NPA, was because he expressed the sentiments of Ghanaians who are very much surprised that regardless of the havoc 'dumsor' is wrecking on Ghanaians and businesses, President Mahama’s government would, at this time, rather choose to increase the prices of petroleum products.”“In the estimation of Mr. Asaga, Ghanaians should not complain about the increase in petroleum prices because in "Germany where Nana Akufo-Addo was yesterday, a gallon of petrol is $6.48; in Ghana today, a gallon of petrol is $3.30; in UK last night a gallon of petrol was $7.60.” Asaga also wondered how Ghanaians can buy $US60,000 cars and complain against petrol price of GHC15 a gallon. “These assertions betray the arrogant posture of many appointees of President Mahama. Clearly, these appointees have lost touch with the concerns of the ordinary Ghanaian. So much for a party who, in opposition, promised to "drastically reduce the prices of petrol", because "I care for you" and followed it up in 2012 with the "working for you".“Whilst brandishing figures about the cost of a gallon of petrol from two ‘developed’ countries, to lay claim to his notion that the cost of fuel is cheaper in Ghana, Asaga decided disingenuously not to tell Ghanaians about the standard of living in the countries he so happily tried to compare Ghana with.”“The Daily minimum wage in UK is $78 per day, Germany is $76 per day and Ghana is $1.8 a day.“This means that the average Ghanaian worker will have to work two full days to be able to buy a gallon. The average German worker can buy 11 gallons a day. The average British worker can also buy 10 gallons a day. ““This is what Mr. Asaga deliberately hid from Ghanaians, and this is the true definition of “intellectual dishonesty.”“If Nana Akufo-Addo shows concern for the ordinary Ghanaian, who is suffering, and will be labelled as being intellectually dishonest by Asaga and his colleagues, then Nana Akufo-Addo will gladly continue along the path of being an advocate for the suffering masses, something he has done for well over 35 years.”