Ghana has bagged US$540,456,124 in petroleum revenues in the first half of 2023, the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has reported.
The sources of the revenue are carried and participating interest, US$253,533,067, corporate income tax, US$166,505,263, royalty, US$81,010,863, petroleum holding fund income US$2,747,810, and surface rental US$659,118.
Of the amount, US$125,710,650 was transferred to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, US$238,811,220 was used to fund the 2023 budget, US$71,643,366 paid into the stabilisation fund, US$30,704,299 paid into the Ghana Heritage Fund.
According to the PIAC, the amount channeled to support the budget, GH¢247,892,184 went into agriculture, GH¢36,351,356 into physical infrastructure in health and education, GH¢1,737,081,340 into roads, GH¢820,008,725 into the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund, GH¢131,005,360 and GH¢2,345,361 into industrialisation.
At the launch of the committee’s 2023 semi-annual report in Accra yesterday, the PIAC said for the fourth consecutive time, the GNPC has failed to pay proceeds from petroleum liftings into the Petroleum Holding Fund in line with the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA).
“PIAC reiterates its position that proceeds from liftings of JOHL and any other subsidiary of GNPC constitutes petroleum revenues, and therefore must be paid into the PHF,” the Chairman of the PIAC, Prof. Kwame Adom-Frimpong said.
“To ensure effective monitoring and evaluation of petroleum revenues, International Oil Companies should be mindful not to pay monies other than petroleum revenues into the PHF.
The Ministry of Finance should comply with the provision in Section 16(4) of the PRMA as amended to release funds to the National Oil Company not later than three working days, after the receipt of petroleum revenue into the PHF,” Prof. Adom-Frimpong added.
In his view, in approving appropriation, Parliament should take into consideration Regulation 8 of LI 2381, with regards to the cap on the Ghana Stabilisation Fund.
Vice Chairman of the PIAC, Nasir Alfa Mohammed, on how the disagreement between the GNPC and the PIAC on the payment of petroleum revenues into the PHF could be addressed, said some members of the PIAC were considering judicial intervention.
“In the past we were under the understanding that we don’t have to take legal action against GNPC, but some members and past members are beginning to think that we should explore the legal option.
At the moment that decision has not been taken as a PIAC decision, it when we get to that bridge, we’ll cross,” Mr Mohammed said.
Another member of the committee, Emerita Prof. Elizabeth Ardayfio-Schandorf, said the understanding of the law by the GNPC was problematic and Ghanaians must take interest in the matter.
