The adoption of the E-levy, according to Johnson Asediu Nketia, General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), will expose the government.
He claimed that the government had blamed practically every difficulty on Parliament’s refusal to approve the E-levy. As a result, now that the policy has been adopted, Ghanaians will be watching to see if all of these issues are resolved.
“The whole process has been flipped upside down,” Mr Aseidu Nketia told TV3’s Roland Walker in Parliament after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo delivered the 2022 State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Wednesday March 30. We have a president who claims to believe in the rule of law yet encourages his people to break it.
“I was not [in Parliament] yesterday but what I saw amounts to abuse of all the processes in the House. So, technically, I do not consider that the right procedures have been followed in whatever approval that has been made but there is a principle that when there is wrong judgement it still remains a judgment until it is revised. We will go back to the drawing table and we will see whether we will proceed to continue with the fight about E-levy .
“But the important thing is that whatever approval that they claimed they have made is rather going to expose them more. Because we are in this country where everything that is not happening well has been blamed on the non-passage of the E-levy, including the payment of contractors, including the non-release of common fund, including the non-release of GETFund, health insurance and all that.
“Now you have your E-levy, let us see that in the coming weeks, all these problems will be solved or you expose yourself as lying government.”
Mr Akufo-Addo said among other things during the address that he is happy that the E-levy has finally been approved by Parliament.
Parliament on Tuesday March 29 approved the E-levy after the Minority had walked out. The Minority opposed the Bill because in their view, it was punitive.
President Akufo-Addo in his address said “Mr. Speaker, despite the protracted and sometimes acrimonious nature of proceedings, I am happy that the House has, finally, found it possible to pass the e-levy. I believe the levy is going to make a significant contribution to revenue mobilisation and the management of the economy, and I want to thank Members of the House for making this possible.
“The road to recovery will be hard and long, Mr. Speaker, but we have started on a good footing by accepting that we are in a difficult place, and are taking the difficult decisions that will get us out.
“If anyone ever had any doubts about the need to be self-reliant, the point has now been forcibly drilled home to us. The pursuit of the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda is even more compelling now.
“I have no doubts whatsoever that we have it in us to build the Ghana of our dreams. I saw the spirit of togetherness and the willingness to help each other when COVID struck. We looked out for each other.
“I saw the sense of enterprise and innovation of the Ghanaian. I saw our manufacturers quickly adapt their plants to produce sanitizers and our tailors equally quickly displayed the innovation they had always been known for, by turning face masks into fashion items.”
