The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Director of Communications, Richard Ahiagbah, has called on the government to immediately scrap the GHS1 per litre fuel levy introduced in 2025, arguing that with pump prices already rising sharply due to the Middle East conflict, the additional charge has become an unconscionable burden on Ghanaians.
Speaking on TV3’s KeyPoints programme on Saturday, April 4, 2026, Ahiagbah said the government knows exactly where it can make adjustments to cushion Ghanaians and that the removal of the GHS1 levy is the most obvious and immediate step available.
His call marks a sharp escalation in the NPP’s criticism of the levy, which it has opposed since Parliament passed it under a certificate of urgency in June 2025. At the time of its introduction, Ahiagbah described the decision to impose the GHS1 charge per litre as an incredibly weak and convenient choice, arguing that taxing Ghanaians to offset the long-standing inefficiencies, mismanagement, power theft, and corruption within the Electricity Company of Ghana Limited (ECG) was not what the NDC had promised when campaigning against the E-levy ahead of the December 2024 election.
The levy, formally known as the Energy Sector Shortfall and Debt Repayment Levy (ESSDRL), is projected to generate approximately GHS5.7 billion annually and is ring-fenced for fuel procurement for thermal power generation. The government has maintained it was a difficult but necessary measure to prevent power sector collapse.
However, with global crude prices elevated above $100 per barrel due to Strait of Hormuz disruptions since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February 2026, pump prices in Ghana have risen sharply, and Ahiagbah argued the levy is now compounding the pain of an external shock the government did not create but has the tools to partially address.
He urged the government to act immediately rather than wait for the conflict to resolve, warning that delayed intervention would deepen the cost-of-living pressure on households and businesses already absorbing higher fuel, transport, and food costs.
The government has not yet publicly responded to the specific demand to reverse the levy. Government spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu said separately on the same programme that better exchange rate management has so far prevented fuel prices from rising as steeply as they might have, and that the administration is considering all available options to cushion Ghanaians from the war’s economic fallout.
