The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) says the Minister of Finance must be held solely responsible for the 2.7billion cedis loss in forgone oil revenue to Ghana due to the fall in crude price on the world market.
[contextly_sidebar id=”M9bAa4gZQiK1r2n6nr9EKd4G4TpglsE0″]This is after the think tank rejected claims by the Minister of finance Seth Terkper that Ghana was still embarking on a hedging program.
The finance minister has reviewed downwards by 64.4% total petroleum receipts for 2015 from 4.2 billion cedis to 1.5 billion cedis.
According to the Executive Director of IFS Professor Newman Kusi , this could have been averted if the minister had sanctioned a hedging program for Ghana’s crude imports and exports.
He said, “I don’t think there is any hedging going on, as far I know, I don’t know when that hedging commenced”.
The Think Tank is also demanding the minister makes public all necessary documentation in relation to the country’s hedging program in the past and future plans.
“Basically we are asking the minister, why is it that there is a mechanism in place that you could have invoked to mitigate the losses arising from the crude oil price fall, if he has done something like that or if he plans to do something like that, he should come out and tell us…all this time , up till now it has not been done. All that we need as Ghanaians is an explanation as to why he did not take any action to mitigate the losses”.
Professor Kusi said the position of the think tank is justified considering the minister never updated the country on a hedging program while delivering a statement on the floor of parliament on the impact of the drop in crude prices on the 2015 budget.
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By: Rabiu Alhassan/citifmonline.com/Ghana
