The newly passed fuel levy has drawn sharp criticism from Benjamin Nsiah, Executive Director of the Centre for Environment and Sustainable Energy, who describes the measure as regressive and short-sighted.
Nsiah argues that the levy places an undue financial burden on consumers while sidestepping the deep structural inefficiencies that continue to undermine Ghana’s energy sector.
Parliament approved the Energy Sector Levies (Amendment) Bill, 2025 on Tuesday, clearing the way for a GH¢1 increase in petroleum product levies. The government expects to raise GH¢5.7 billion through the measure.
Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson said the additional revenue is intended to settle $3.1 billion in legacy debts and secure $1.2 billion for fuel procurement to power thermal plants in 2025.
Dr Forson also maintained that the new levy will not translate into higher prices at the pump. That claim has, however, been met with public scepticism and political pushback. The Minority Caucus staged a walkout during the bill’s passage, calling it “ill-timed” and alleging that the Majority lacked the necessary quorum to approve the legislation.
Nsiah, however, contends that such fiscal measures fail to address the persistent problems at the core of the energy crisis. “This approach is not only tired but unfair,” he said. “We’ve seen this playbook before with ESLA and the Energy Sector Recovery Levy. None of them have offered lasting solutions. It’s not about collecting more, it’s about managing what’s already collected.”
He noted that since the introduction of fuel-based levies in 2016, consumers have absorbed repeated tax increases with little evidence of improved sector performance or reduced arrears.
“For the Minister to say this won’t burden consumers is simply not accurate,” Nsiah stated. “The consumer has carried this burden for years, and without reform, this trend will continue.”
Nsiah points to widespread inefficiencies along the energy value chain, from procurement and contracting to transmission and distribution, as the more pressing issues. He argues that the government’s continued focus on revenue mobilisation, rather than governance and operational efficiency, risks prolonging the crisis.
“What is needed now is not another tax but a credible shift in strategy,” he said, urging policymakers to prioritise fiscal discipline, transparent spending, and institutional reforms. Without these, he warned, Ghana’s energy challenges will persist, and consumer-based levies will remain a politically expedient but economically damaging fallback.
The fuel levy’s passage has sparked broader concerns about the state’s reliance on petroleum taxation to resolve systemic financial pressures, an approach critics say is both unsustainable and inequitable.
