High corporate taxes push oil earnings up

Higher-than-expected inflows from corporate tax helped push the country's earnings from petroleum to GHC1.4 billion as of September 2013.

The amount was far higher than the year-end budget target of GHC1.1 billion, making it the first time that the country has earned more than budgeted from the nascent petroleum sector.

It is also the first year that operators in the upstream petroleum sector have paid corporate tax, having been recovering their capital allowances in the past financial years.

Mr Seth Terkper, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, announced the country's earnings from the petroleum sector on Tuesday while presenting the 2014 Budget and Economic Policy Statement of government to Parliament.

The minister said that the higher earnings from petroleum were as a result of "more-than expected corporate tax inflows."

He also added that oil production at the Jubilee Field was higher than estimated, averaging at around 100,000 barrels per day in the last nine months of 2013.

It is expected that government estimates from the petroleum sector will be higher than the 2013 figure, especially given that the Jubilee Field is elected to ramp up to its plateau capacity of 120,000 barrels per day by next year.