A Deputy Finance Minister, John Kumah, has urged the Minority in Parliament to back down on its opposition to aspects of the 2022 budget.
Speaking on The Point of View, Mr. Kumah said it was time to focus on nation-building.
“In democracies all over the world, minorities have their say, but governments have their way. I think they have had enough say.”
“Let’s look at how we can allow the government to also go ahead of this budget implementation so that together we can build this country,” he added.”
Mr. Kumah went on to say that the Minority’s entrenched position will harm Ghana’s democracy.
“It shouldn’t be a binary situation in which I either get this or nothing occurs. We will be hurting our own democracy and portraying a false picture of the reasons why we are even in Parliament if we do so.”
Mr. Kumah was commenting after the Finance Minister, in a press conference on Monday, December 6, 2021, announced certain revisions.
The modifications addressed demands made by the Parliamentary Minority.
The Minority demanded that the Electronic Transaction Levy be suspended, that the Agyapa deal ideas be removed from the budget, that the language on the Aker Energy agreement be rewritten, and that the benchmark import values be reviewed.
While the government made some changes in line with the demands, the main concerns around the e-levy were not addressed.
The levy will be a 1.75 percent charge on some electronic transactions, including mobile money.
The levy will exempt daily transactions of a cumulative value of GH¢100 or less, per person.
In the budget, the recommended date for the levy to take effect was January 1, 2022.
According to the budget, up to 0.25 percentage points of the 1.5 percent e-transaction levy or 16.7 percent of the yield from the levy, should be used to support road infrastructure development.
Ten percent of the 0.25 percentage points, i.e. 1.67% of the yield from the levy, will be dedicated to improvements in public transportation, including the purchase of buses.
