Mahama Ayariga, MP for Bawku Central, feels the administration has already shown its refusal to alter the planned Electronic Transactions Levy.
He claims that the failure of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to give a clear strategy for the implementation of the E-levy when he returned to the House on Tuesday to end the discussion on the contentious budget approval is enough to support his case.
That is not the only reason given by the MP. He also believes that the government’s unwillingness to publish an official statement to rescind the levy demonstrates that it is determined to implement the program.
The E-levy, a 1.75 percent fee on all electronic transactions, is one of the main reasons the Minority is opposed to the 2022 Budget. It has been labeled as super-regressive and should be repealed.
However, the government has indicated that it is willing to participate in discussions to revise the planned E-levy in response to concerns made since its release in the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy last week.
But, according to Mahama Ayariga, the government is merely giving lip service since it lacks commitment, adding, “there is no clear communication that government will reduce taxes or scrap the E-levy.”
“The real issue is E-levy and that is the priority but there is no clear communication. What is said on radio or television and what communicators say doesn’t make a pronouncement of official government policy”.
“We were expecting that when the Finance Minister was given the opportunity yesterday [Tuesday] to round up the debate, he would have been specific that this what they are doing about E-levy; but he just said that they will see what they they can do about it. That is what we got from him”, Mahama Ayariga said on The Point of View on Citi TV.
The Bawku Central MP also said that the Majority underestimated his party’s objection to the E-levy, which resulted in the walkout last Friday and subsequent rejection of the budget.
In response to the Minority’s rejection of the budget, Mahama Ayariga said that it was because the Majority did not take threats of voting against the E-levy seriously.
“They [Majority] didn’t think we were serious about it [E-levy]. They thought that we will debate it as usual, people will talk about it and then they will have their way. It was the day of concluding the debate and voting that it appeared to them that we were serious about all that we have been saying and in fact we voted against it.”
“This budget is based on some key policy measures and those measures are geared towards raising revenues. But it appears that, government will not budge to those policy measures. So if you were monitoring our debate in parliament, we said that if this is it [budget], we will not vote for it. Even the speaker said, if you keep E-Levy, we will not vote for this budget and there was no indication from the government until the day we were concluding the debate.”
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SOURCE: CITINEWS
