By Bill W. Cooper
Gbarpolu County Senator Amara Konneh has sharply reacted to President Joseph Boakai’s recent Executive Order #128.
This order suspends the surcharge on petroleum pricing, something he said only benefits petroleum importers than the ordinary Liberians.
Amidst the increase of price in gasoline and fuel in the Liberian market, the Gbarpolu Senator feels that President Boakai, March 21, 2024, Executive Order is not in the interest of the citizenry.
In his analysis on his official Facebook page, Konneh said, “We ran on an independent platform to be a champions of good governance in the Liberian Senate; an open, accountable, and transparent government and to the extent of our limited knowledge and experience. This post is in fulfillment of that commitment.”
“As such, it is important to inform the Liberians at home and abroad that President Boakai’s proposed draft US$692 million budget, which is currently before the Legislature, is already short by the dollar value of the surcharges foregone by Executive Order #128 on petroleum pricing,” he stated.
“And if we must lay a solid foundation for The “ARREST” Agenda to deliver on development commitments to meet citizens’ expectations, we must commit to policy consistency because Governance is different from campaigning and this policy is only for importers benefit and the Liberians,” the Gbarpolu County Senator noted.
Konneh explained, “This can only be achieved through broader stakeholder consultations. We cannot be making efforts to raise revenue to fund the budget to meet or surpass our growth targets while waiving a considerable predictable amount of revenue for political expediency with no significant social or economic impact on citizens.”
According to him, those who advised the President to issue said policy did not consider the adverse impact of the EO #128 on the revenue envelope before allocating expenditures, and stated that the EO is expected to create an estimated US$14 million to US$25 million deficit in the Draft Budget for FY2024, which was submitted to the Legislature before the issuance of the EO.
He noted that the EO #128 was issued as part of the Government’s efforts to reduce the cost of living for citizens but it seems to have no such impact as pump prices of gasoline and fuel have remained unchanged since it was issued.
The senator recounted that the Ministry of Commerce announced the new fuel and gasoline prices in a circular on April 9, 2024, two weeks after the EO went into effect and as such, there has been no new transportation or fare schedule to translate the impact of EO #128 to ordinary Liberians.
He maintained, “This policy appears to be enriching the petroleum importers more than the citizens it was intended for, creating a massive loss in revenue to the country of approximately between US$14 to US$25 million.”
“This much-needed revenue to fund the budget was waived by the Government. This is especially glaring in light of the announced increase in planned investments in education, health, and municipal governments.
So, the fundamental questions to ask are; was EO #128 grounded in sound fiscal analysis or should the government have surrendered millions to importers, based on a panic theory that the Platts Price of crude oil is going up globally?” Konneh wondered.
He further narrated, “Platts provides daily price assessments for most major crude oil grades around the world. A cursory review of the global Platts oil prices shows that they have not reached the October 2023 price level.”
“So, with the Platts provided which on October 2023 Price at $93.56/barrel; the chart in the middle is the March 24 price at $84.15/barrel around the time EO #128 was issued; and the chart on the right is the futures price for tomorrow released today April 14, 2024 at $90.22/barrel.
These different price charts support the argument that EO #128 benefits importers. While the prospect of a wider conflict in the Middle East continued to stoke fears of further supply disruptions, I believe that EO #128 could have been delayed until the price surpasses the October 2023 level before removing the surcharges,” he added.
Konneh asserted, “Finally, how does the government intend to fund the budget effectively when an estimated US$14 to US$25 million, which is part of the draft budget envelope, is waived due to the suspension of the petroleum surcharges when the window to finding additional domestic revenues is limited?”
He noted, “Again, we are working on the budget. But citizens need to know that it will take a while for the Legislature to fix it. Some of my friends in the UP Alliance are unhappy with me for raising these pertinent issues for which we all criticized the Coalition Government of former President Weah”.
“I hope they realize and appreciate that whenever the people are well informed about their Government as we did during the runoff elections to ensure its credibility, they can be trusted with their own government,” he asserted.
