What Alternative Do You Have? – Kwesi Pratt On GH¢1 D-Levy
Kwesi Pratt, the Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper, has challenged critics of the government’s GH¢1 fuel levy to suggest better alternatives to solve the energy sector crisis.
As part of measures to avert impending power cuts and defray Ghana’s energy sector debt, the government has introduced a 1 cedi deduction on a liter of fuel for all drivers.
The 1 cedi levy, popularly referred to as “dumsor levy”, is aimed at resolving the energy sector crisis with particular focus on stabilizing power supply across the nation.
Parliament, on Tuesday, June 3, 2025, approved an Energy Sector Levy (Amendment) Bill, 2025, to initiate the GH¢1 levy on petroleum products.
The bill intends to raise additional revenues as the sector, according to the Minister, is saddled with a huge debt of US$3.7 billion.
But a number of Ghanaians have stridently kicked against the new levy, calling for its revocation.
Reacting to the levy during “Kokrokoo” panel discussion on Peace FM, Kwesi Pratt alluded to some actions of the erstwhile Nana Addo government that, he noted, have resulted in the current situation of the energy sector incurring huge debts.
He referenced the previous government tapping from the Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA) which was introduced in 2015 and implemented in 2016 to streamline energy-related taxes and rescue struggling state-owned utilities.
To him, the previous government’s decisions are largely a cause of the looming energy crisis.
On the levy, Kwesi Pratt sought to find out what other options are there to solve the problem, asking “what should we do?”.
“I haven’t seen any alternative to solve this debt problem”, he stressed.
Source: Ghmessenger.com
