Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) Sulemana Braimah has criticized the conduct of the Minority in Parliament regarding the e-levy proposal in the 2022 budget statement.
He said in a Facebook post captioned ‘SO CAN THE NDC BE TRUSTED AT ALL?’ regarding the 2022 budget, that the NDC caucus in Parliament just acted like their party did in the last election. “We have won, we have won” only to suffer a humiliating defeat.
He said “On the 2022 budget, the NDC caucus in Parliament just acted like their party did in the last election. “We have won, we have won” only to suffer a humiliating defeat.
“On the budget, they claimed, “we have rejected it, we have rejected it ” only to be humiliated in the end. I hope one day, we can trust what they claim or say. Now, we don’t even know their true position on the budget and the catastrophic E-levy. At some point, their leader says he agrees to a 1% E-levy. At the same time, the same minority group says their position remain unchanged.
“Then you are left wondering, which position they are talking about. The position of their leader or which position? Then my friend Okudzeto Ablakwa is reported to be claiming some sort of victory over what he says is cabinet withdrawal of the allocation of Ghc241million E-levy service fee.
“Then you wonder why will that be of interest. If there is no E-levy will there be an E-levy service fee? What the people are opposed to, and will suffer from, is the E-levy itself and that is what the people were looking up to the opposition to save them from.In the end, the people were just given a hopeless hope.
“The masses had hoped that for once, the opposition will use their numbers to truly defend their interest. At this stage, I forsee E-levy in operation. I hope one day, we can trust what the NDC says or claims.”
His comments come after the Ministry of Finance has dismissed allegations that the GH¢241,933,000 allocation in the Appropriations Bill for the Electronic Transactions Levy services have been dropped.
It also denied claims that a private firm will be contracted to collect the levy on behalf of the government.
“The Ministry of Finance wish to state that these allegations are untrue,” it insisted in a statement issued on Monday, December 13.
It noted that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is the state-mandated agency to collect the levies.
“GRA will manage all discussions to ensure full deployment of their current platforms and resources for the collection of the E-Levy.”
The rumours were fuelled by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who alleged that a “deep-throat and unimpeachable” source within Cabinet disclosed to him that the e-levy has been removed from the final Appropriations Act.
The statement repeated Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta’s explanation in Parliament in earmarking GH¢241 million as the e-levy services fee.
“We wish to reiterate that the E-Transaction Levy remains one of the efficient means by which government would be able to raise the needed revenue to support the economic development programme for 2022.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana