Today's Ghana Business, Banking and Economic news

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has rolled out a tax incentive scheme for taxpayers to help cushion businesses and people against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

The production of crude oil fell by 6.3 per cent in 2020 from the 2019 volume, the first such drop in over three consecutive oil production increases, the 2020 Annual Management Report of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee, PIAC has shown.

Energy think tank Institute for Energy Security, IES says the best time for oil-producing companies to attract investment into the upstream petroleum sector from the coming green revolution is now.

President Nana Akufo-Addo has called for the restructuring of the global financial architecture so it can respond better to the needs of Africa.

The Ghana Private Road Transport Union, GPRTU has asked passengers to disregard the 20 percent increment in fares announced by other private transport unions.

Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia says plans are underway to ensure that all Ghanaians with SIM cards re-register them with the National Identification card by middle of this year.

According to him, this is part of plans to rid the country’s cyberspace of fraud.

Speaking at the 5th Ghana CEO Summit which is underway in Accra, the Vice President however noted that any individual who fails to take part in the exercise risks losing his or her SIM card.

“I expect that the Minister for Communications and Digitalization [Ursula Owusu Ekuful] will soon announce the date for registration of the SIM card. Maybe by the end of June or beginning of July this year, everybody will have to register their SIM with a National ID number.”

“We all have to do that otherwise we’ll lose that SIM card and that will really give us a real identity for all MoMo transactions. For example, it takes away fraud…that is taking place like SIM box and through MoMo”, he added.

Furthermore, the Vice President said “we’re also doing the births and death registry; the digitization is 80% complete now. What we are putting in place is a system so that from next year when a child is born within a month, each child will be given a unique National ID number.”

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia also expressed government commitment to rebuild a resilient economy through policy response and strategies.

According to him, the country will achieve this through digitization of the economy which will trigger more revenue growth and expansion of the economy.

“We have to move into a new economy because it is going to provide a single source of truth and a unique identity for all transactions across the spectrum. And so this year, what we’ve been doing since we came into office has been the integration of the national ID card database with other key databases.

“We’ve integrated it with SSNIT, we’ve integrated with GRA. And with GRA, for example up to 2016, TIN numbers in Ghana was 750,000. By making the TIN number our national ID number, we’ve immediately increased it from 750,000 to 15.5 million as of now.

SOURCE: Joy Business

Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG's dumsor timetable ends today, May 17, 2021.

Private road transport operators will from today May 17 increase fares by 20%.

Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has said his Ministry is committed to ensuring long-term financial sustainability in Ghana’s power sector.

The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC), has said prices of petroleum products at the pumps will most likely increase again, barely two weeks after a previous increase.

Some 10 days ago prices at the pumps hiked up by 12% due to the introduction of some taxes and increases in margins by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), the industry regulator.

According to the energy think tank, the new prices should take effect on or before Tuesday, May 18.

COPEC said in a press release issued on Sunday, May 16 that because of ongoing geopolitical events, the international market price for petrol has moved from $630.525/mt to $655.625/mt.

The release, signed by COPEC Executive Secretary, Duncan Amoah, explained that for Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) or diesel, the prices have moved to $545/Mt from $520/Mt. LPG has also seen a little over $1.6377 increase within the period.

“These increases on the international market translate to around Ghp8 per litre on local pump prices for both petrol and diesel or around 5% on international price index, representing a further increase of about 1.25% variance on current pump prices,” the statement explained.

Read the full release below.

FUEL PRICES GOING UP AGAIN IN A SPATE OF 10 DAYS

Barely a fortnight after prices at the pumps in Ghana shot up by over 12% due to the introduction of some taxes, increases in margins by the NPA and industry as well as increases on the international market, fuel prices are set to go up again in the next few hours.

Geopolitical events over the past few days have led to increases in International Market Prices from $630.525/mt to around $655.625/mt for premium or petrol as of Friday whiles prices of AGO or diesel has moved from $520/Mt to $545/Mt.

Lpg has also seen a little over $1.6377 increase within the period though the country’s currency has been relatively stable within the period.

These increases on the international market translate to around Ghp 8/litre on local pump prices for both petrol and diesel or around 5% on the international price index representing a further increase of about 1.25% variance on current pump prices.

This variance is expected to likely reflect at the Ghanaian pumps on or before Tuesday (18/05/2021) and will eventually add on to the recent increases of over 12% a few days ago thereby bringing the cumulative increases at the Ghanaians pumps to, in excess of a cumulative nominal Ghp 68/litre or 14% increases at the pumps within a spate of under 10 days.

The trend if not checked could likely continue or escalate as the geopolitical developments are pointing to bullish sentiments on the international market in the coming days.

The country does not seem to have in place any mitigating policies or programmes in place to cushion the average Ghanaian from these International Market price shocks as the effects reflect directly at the pumps and on pockets.

A myriad of taxes including the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy component on pump prices which should have provided a buffer in times like these for some of these price movements has barely ever been used to cushion Ghanaians and the market around these times when needed and thus fuel prices becoming pretty unbearable on pockets.

The country’s Strategic Stocks which could have also been used to offset these price movements on the international market is currently non-existent as the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation instead of holding strategic stocks has now become fully commercial in their outlook though they continue to take monies from Ghanaians at the pumps in the name of Bost margins, we believe this particular margin ought to be looked at again if we need to bring fuel prices down.

The current state of Ghana's only National Refinery leaves so much to be desired as nothing seems to work from poor management practices and decisions as no productivity is happening there, even water has over the past few weeks been disconnected from the Refinery due to its inability to settle Ghana Water Company its indebtedness.

We call on Authorities to as a matter of urgency put concrete strategies in place to forestall these increases as it is affecting harshly the general cost of living within the country with transport operators waiting to slap increases on fares in the coming days.

Signed.

Duncan Amoah

Executive Secretary.

The Energy Minister has introduced a new local term to reflect the current administration’s ongoing efforts to permanently fix perennial challenges in Ghana’s power sector.

The International Monetary Fund, IMF in a statement after a team led by Carlo Sdralevich paid an official visit to Ghana says the country has effectively managed the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ghana must take proactive measures to ban small-scale miners from using mercury in gold processing, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has advocated.

The management of Dzata Cement has in a statement said they are yet to announce the price of its products.

Consumer inflation dropped by 1.8 percentage points to 8.5 percent in April, driven by a large drop in food inflation, which fell by 4.3 percentage points to 6.5 percent in the month, according to data from the Ghana Statistical Service.