Parliament has adopted the government’s 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, which was delivered to the House on November 17, 2021, by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
Although the Minority Caucus in the House rejected the budget on Friday, November 30, 2021, the Majority Caucus reversed the decision today, Tuesday, November 30, 2021, and adopted the policy document.
Today’s session was adjourned due to the absence of Minority members.
The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu, who presided over the meeting, dismissed the budget’s claimed rejection.
He said that the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, erred in monitoring the procedure last Friday since there was no clear majority in the House.
On Friday, November 26, the Minority Caucus decided to reject the budget after a walkout by the Majority Caucus.
Among other grounds for rejecting the budget, the Minority urged the suspension of the 1.75 percent e-levy and the Agyapa royalties arrangement, as well as answers to the Volta Region’s destructive tidal waves.
Later, the Majority Caucus urged Ghanaians to ignore the budget’s purported rejection, claiming it was unconstitutional.
The Member of Parliament for the Adansi Asokwa constituency in the Ashanti Region, KT Hammond, earlier in the day insisted that the Majority Caucus will marshal all the arsenals at their disposal to approve the 2022 budget, which was rejected by Parliament last Friday.
“The Game is still on. The action will be in play today. There won’t be any more projects in town. The only project in town today is the action on the floor of Parliament. This time you are not going to read my lips, you are going to see it with your naked eyes.”
“We have 138 human beings which we are going to deploy. Every arsenal at our disposal will be displayed today. We are going to pass the 2022 budget. The only action in town today is here in Parliament,” he said in an interview with the media on Tuesday, November 30, 2021.
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SOURCE: CITINEWS