Government can trigger a reduction in fuel prices if they reduce the taxes on the product.

This is the position of the Executive Director of the Kumasi Institute of Technology and Environment (KITE), Ishmael Edjekumhene, as Ghanaians complain of a sharp increase in the price of the commodity.

Social media has been awash with pictures of fuel stations displaying the new prices captioned by complaints of the magnitude of increase and jabs at the government for presiding over the situation.

Mr Edjekumhene says although the sale of fuel is deregulated - meaning government does not directly determine the pricing - the rate of the most recent increase was brought about by the addition of the new taxes announced by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, during the reading of the 2021 budget.

Speaking on JoyPrime’s Prime Morning show, Mr. Edjekumhene said, “At the end of the day when it comes to Petroleum products with the full day regulation, the best the government can do with them is say ‘let me look at my taxes and my levies and see if I can drop a few pesewas so that’ - and even in this case if government has the option or is in the position to say that ‘look maybe the various levies and taxes we could do something about it’, probably prices wouldn’t go up. But here is the case the government in its budget is still in need of more money.”

Meanwhile, earlier today government announced that the price of fuel at the pump had been reduced by 8 pesewas following the intervention of Energy Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh.