The Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said the Minister of Finance Seth Terkper must solely be held responsible for Ghana’s GHC2.7 billion loss in forgone oil revenue due to the fall in crude oil prices on the world market.
This is after the think tank rejected claims by the Minister of Finance that Ghana was still embarking on a hedging program.
The Minister has reviewed downwards by 64.4% total petroleum revenue receipts for 2015 from GHC4.2 billion to GHC1.5 billion.
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 as well.
“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.
Credit: citifmonline