The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament and MP for Asante Akim North, Andy Appiah-Kubi, has mounted a spirited defense for the new passport application fees, arguing that acquisition of a passport is a privilege.
He therefore questioned applicants as to who is supposed to pay for the difference in the processing of passports.
According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, passports were “highly subsidised” by the government, indicating that passports cost GHC400, whereas applicants paid GHC100.
A situation the ministry described as “unsustainable.”
Meanwhile, in his defence on The Key Points on Saturday, April 6, the Asante Akim North lawmaker emphasised that the new fees were approved by “a unanimous decision” at the Subsidiary Legislation Committee of Parliament.
He said, “It is not the duty of the Foreign Affairs Committee to handle the legislation as it was, because this was to come into the L.I. for fees and charges, and it is the legislative committee on subsidiary [that handled it].”
He further noted that the Subsidiary Legislation Committee approved the new fees and submitted it to the plenary for deliberations.
According to him, as far as he could remember, no member of Parliament raised concerns about the quantum of the increment.
“Not that I remember, there was no such complaint that I remember, but at the end of it all it is parliament that passes, so whether or not there were complaints raised in the debate or so, but I don’t remember there were complaints during the debate at the plenary,” he stated.
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Responding to whether the House represented the views and concerns of the Ghanaian people in approving the over 500 percent increment of the document, he said, “Passport is not a requirement for you to prove your citizenship because now it is the national identification card that citizens use in proving citizenship.”
He continued that, “passports become necessary when people want to travel. Before the passage of the L.I., people were paying GHC100 for a GHC400 product, and the state of Ghana was subsidising using Ghana’s money.”
He maintained that taxpayer monies that could be used for certain important projects cannot be used to subsidise passports for the few who want to travel at the expense of those who do not intend to travel outside the country.
He also described as “propaganda” the assertions that Ghanaians are complaining about the new fees.
“So those of us who are going to use our monies to support those people we are not also the people of Ghana?” he quizzed, adding, “In any case, the people who want to travel, it is the privilege they want to enjoy. Why should I, who will not enjoy that privilege, be the person to be paying?
He indicated that the same Ghanaians complaining about not being able to pay GHC500 for passports, end up paying $200 for non-refundable visa fees at various embassies, as well as paying over $1000 for plane tickets to travel.