- INSTEPR Accuses Government of Breaching ESLA Reporting Requirement
The Institute for Energy Policies and Research has accused the government of breaching the Energy Sector Levies Act, 2015, after its investigation found that the 2025 management accounts for ESLA had not been submitted to Parliament.
In a press release, INSTEPR said the failure to submit the report violates Section 6 of the Energy Sector Levies Act, which requires the Minister of Finance to submit to Parliament an annual report on the management of accounts established under the Act.
The institute said it was drawing the attention of the Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, to what it described as the government’s breach of the law.
“The Minister shall submit to Parliament an annual report on the management of the accounts established under section 3 and 5,” INSTEPR quoted the Act as saying.
According to the energy policy group, successive Finance Ministers have, since the inception of ESLA, submitted the annual report together with the national budget. It noted that the 2024 ESLA annual report was submitted to Parliament alongside the 2025 Budget Statement.
The demand for accountability comes nearly a year after the government amended ESLA in June 2025 and added GH¢1.00 to the existing GH¢0.95 levy on petroleum products. INSTEPR said Ghanaians were informed at the time that the additional levy was necessary to purchase liquid fuel to prevent power outages.
But the institute argues that the persistence of power outages has made public accounting even more urgent.
“Almost a year after the introduction of the additional levy, lights are still going off across the country. We therefore call on the Government to account for how the levies collected have been utilised,” the statement said.
The intervention adds a fresh governance dimension to Ghana’s energy-sector debate, which has increasingly shifted from tariff adequacy and generation capacity to transparency, arrears management and the use of energy-sector revenues.
ESLA was introduced as a dedicated mechanism to help address legacy energy-sector debts and support the financial recovery of the power sector. Over time, however, questions about collections, allocations, securitisation and reporting have remained central to public scrutiny of the levy.
INSTEPR’s concern is therefore not only about a missed administrative requirement. It goes to the heart of fiscal transparency in a sector where weak reporting, arrears build-up and quasi-fiscal obligations have repeatedly placed pressure on the national budget.
The timing is also significant as Ghana has recently concluded its IMF Extended Credit Facility programme and is transitioning to a non-financing Policy Coordination Instrument, under which fiscal transparency, state-owned enterprise oversight and energy-sector reforms are expected to remain major policy priorities.
The IMF has also urged Ghana to tackle distribution and collection losses in the power sector, improve payment discipline, clear legacy arrears and reduce generation costs. In that context, transparent reporting on ESLA collections and utilisation will be critical to rebuilding public and investor confidence in the sector’s financial management.
INSTEPR is calling on government to immediately prepare and submit the 2025 ESLA report to Parliament.
“Good governance and timely reporting are essential to the rule of law,” the institute said.
INSTEPR’s demand therefore places one question back at the centre of the energy debate: where did the ESLA money go?
