John Kumah Says: “Taxes On Energy Are John Mahama’s Fault But Akufo-Addo Is Fixing It”

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Ejisu, John Kumah has blamed the erstwhile John Mahama administration for the country’s woes in the energy sector.

According to him, the taxes that impact fuel prices is a result of some ‘absurd’ contracts the former National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration went into.

Speaking on Metro TV’s ‘Good Evening Ghana’ programme, Mr. Kumah, who is a Deputy Minister of Finance designate, said President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is working to resolve the challenges in the sector.

“Some of these legacy debts and arrears in the energy sector was established under (Mahama’s) his government. It’s true that Ghanaians voted him out but some of the legacies he took is still a burden on us”, the MP bemoaned.

“As at June 2020, the Akufo-Addo government has paid 12 billion cedis on excess capacity of energy that we don’t need and we are not using. And we are going to continue to pay until the contract elapse.”

The former Chief Executive Officer of NYEIP said the current challenges in the energy sector is different from what the country faced in the past.

“The current challenges has got nothing to do with production or supply, it has to do with infrastructure for carrying the power, that is why the Energy Minister has said they are working on it and it will be resolved soon”, he added.

John Kumah’s explanation comes off the back of an online protest by the youth for government to fix the country.

According to them, the recent power outages, the increase in taxes, increase in petroleum prices as well as increase in telephony charges is killing the youth.

With a hashtag of FixTheCountry, the youth are planning to hit the streets on May 9 and protest against these taxes.

Watch John Kumah’s explanations below