... KUFUOR WARNS OF MAJOR EXPLOSION

Ghana Palaver from today will bring you some of the "great sayings" of our present rulers when they were in opposition. Some of the things they said have treasonable connotations. Others would make them choke today. Yet others read like the confessions of sinners. But they all point to one thing?when you are not in the kitchen, you just don't know how hot it is in there. We begin the series with President Kufuor's warning when he was in opposition of a "Major Explosion" resulting from the people's anger if the NDC Government continued with its "vampire approach to the management of the economy". It is reproduced from the NPP's own paper, "The Statesman", Vol. 9 No. 38 Week ending April 9, 2000. Those two phrases, "major explosion" and "vampire approach to the management of the economy", would land you before a BNI interrogation panel.

THE NDC government has been warned of a major upheaval in this country resulting from the explosion of the peoples anger, if it continues with its "vampire approach" to the management of the economy. Raising the alarm in an exclusive interview on the current state of the economy, John Agyekum Kufuor, NPP flagbearer who criticized the government for "criminal conduct", said that the tendency of the Rawlings regime to treat Ghanaians like a conquered and subjugated people from whom a punitive price for mere existence ought to be extracted, is soon bound to erupt into a chaotic situation that may prove expensive for all. Noting the "audacity" and "effrontery" of government to increase prices of goods and service without commensurate increases in income levels, he said that this show of contempt and insensitivity would have sparked off serious upheavals by now, elsewhere in the world.

Kufuor condemned the recent increases by government as attempts to squeeze water out of stone and spread poverty across board and cautioned against stretching the tolerance levels of the Ghanaian any further. He advised the government to get to work immediately on policies to ameliorate hardships caused by its bankrupt and vampire approach to the economic management of the nation. The NPP presidential candidate-elect expressed outrage over the recent increase in the VAT rate from 10 per cent to 12? per cent, saying it is yet another tax imposed on the people for the government's inefficiency and mismanagement.

Kufuor described the NDC government's "reasoning and logic" as "strange", and wondered how a tax regime like VAT which has since its introduction, done so well that the 1999 target of ?700 billion was exceeded by ?91 billion, representing a 13 per cent increase, could be so handled. "A more efficient, rational and sensitive government would have waited for the system to work longer before even thinking about an increase", he said. Referring to the Educational Trust Fund which the 2? per cent increase is supposed to service, Kufuor dismissed it as a mere attempt to fleece the people using a laudable project.

He expressed support for the creation of the fund but said that upping the VAT rate to resource it amounts to taking away with the right hand and giving back with the left hand. Charging government with in transparent behaviour, the NPP flagbearer said that the history of this government in the disbursement of such funds and its misuse and misapplication of tax-payers monies, makes it an untrustworthy custodian of the 2? per cent VAT rate for the Education Trust Fund. "You cannot take this government on good faith", he stressed. To resource the fund and rake in more revenue, Kufuor proposed a reversion to the 10 per cent VAT rate and called instead, for a broadening of the base of VAT, lowering of the ?200 million threshold and strengthening of the revenue mobilisation machinery.

On the current increases in petroleum product prices, he raised questions over the formula for such price adjustments. He recalled the government's promise about a decade ago, to index local prices with international crude oil prices. This, Kufuor said, has showed the insincerity of the government because while crude oil for a long time hovered around $10 per barrel, no such reductions were made on the local market. In contrast, recent increases have been passed with a vengeance onto the Ghanaian consumers. "We have clearly been hoodwinked and this is where suspicions over the motive of the government gets stronger," he said.

The NPP presidential hopeful referred announcements of petroleum products prices by different bodies as an "akpatse or Kwaku Ananse attempt to escape responsibility for what clearly lies at the government's doorstep". "Today, it is the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport (BOST). Tomorrow, it is the National Oil and Petroleum Tender Board". Kufuor challenged the government to demonstrate good faith and concern for the worsening plight of the people by not only scaling down the tax component of petroleum product prices, but by making price reductions correspond with anticipated price reductions in world crude oil.

He described as "criminal insensitive, irresponsible and economic short-sightedness", the hike in LPG and kerosene. Noting that LPC is a by-product of petrol refinery, Kufuor said that apart from the micro and macro-economic effects of the increases, the government seems to have failed to factor in the repercussions of the increase on the environment. He recalled the history of the state of our forest which engendered the LPG promotion exercise, and wondered how any responsible government would deliberately seek to undermine it all at a time when statistics clearly show the dangerously fast rate of the depletion of our forests which would make a resort to the firewood and charcoal days disastrous for our future.

Referring to kerosene as a socio-economic product patronised more by the poor and rural folk, he wondered how a government which claimed so much sometime ago to represent the poor, would turn round to punish them with such high prices for commodities so indispensable to their decent existence. He said that a more sincere and innovative regime would have addressed the problem of diesel adulteration with kerosene by changing the colour of kerosene which is technologically feasible.

The NPP flagbearer stressed that much as he was disappointed and outraged with the recent moves of government, it is yet another vindication of the long stated view that the NDC government has come to the end of its tether, for which reason alone, it ought to give way for the infusion of fresh, innovative and productive ideas.