The Minority group in Parliament appears to have been enmeshed in total confusion as to whether they should accept the 2022 budget or not.
After tabling a number of demands, including the E-levy, which they say must be met before they would okay the budget, their leader, Haruna Iddrisu, attended a public forum where he expressed a contrary view that seems to support the position of the Majority.
 “On E-Levy, a week ago, I was no, no, no, we won’t accept the E-Levy, but having listened to officials in government, including the Minister of Finance and Charles Adu Boahen, I was convinced to accept a departure of my original no, to accepting a 1 per cent E-Levy for the good of the Ghanaian people.
“And therefore, if government is able to make overtures and reach out and say that we want to peg the electronic levy at one per cent, I would have a difficulty convincing my constituency, but I take full responsibility because that should be our contribution to fiscal consolidation and our contribution to ensuring that the economy doesn’t collapse on any of us going into the future”.
Haruna Iddrisu said at the launch of the 10th anniversary of the Ghana Telecommunications Chamber in Accra.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, after the hullabaloo that greeted the debate of the budget, called a news conference on Monday, this week, to announce that the demands of the Minority have been met, except the E-levy, which they are still consulting and hoped to come to an amicable conclusion.
But before the minister’s press conference, the Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak had issued a statement that contradicted the new position that was being espoused by Haruna Iddrisu outside parliament.
Muntaka’s statement
According to Muntaka: The NDC Caucus in Parliament wishes to assure Ghanaians that it will continue to use every legitimate and lawful channel to resist the 1.75% E-Levy government is seeking to impose on the ordinary Ghanaian.
For the avoidance of doubt, the position of the NDC Caucus in Parliament, right from the outset of the 2022 Budget debate has been that the 1.75% E-Levy government is seeking to impose is regressive, punitive and draconian, and that same must be suspended.
The Minority Caucus has vigorously championed this position in Parliament and in the media space to draw Government’s attention to our demands.
Subsequent to our rejection of the Budget on 26th November, 2021, government has sought to engage the NDC Caucus in a series of discussions towards finding an amicable solution to the impasse.
Surprisingly, despite the good faith demonstrated by the NDC team recognising the importance of the Budget to the economy, business and households, the government side out-rightly rejected our proposal for a revision of the E-levy, leading to a breakdown of the discussion.
We wish to state unequivocally that no concrete decision or agreement has been reached between government and the NDC Caucus in Parliament on this matter.
As we speak, government’s so-called concessions are unknown to us and we have no clear indication that they intend to seriously consider any of the proposals that have come up.
Under the circumstance we wish to state that the NDC Caucus will maintain its original position as stated earlier.
Parliament yesterday
During the sitting of the House yesterday to consider the modification that had been made to the budget, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu was grateful that the Finance Minister had met some of their demands.
He, however, shifted from the earlier statement he had made at the Telecommunication forum to state that they are completely rejecting the E-levy, a position which is in consonance with Muntaka’s statement that apparently rejected his earlier comment at the said event.
Reiterating the Minority’s Position on why it will not support the implementation of levy, Mr Iddrisu said the levy, which seeks to tax electronic transactions such as Mobile Money, Electronic banking and remittances is primitive and will undermine Ghana’s quest to embark on a digitalised economy.
“So Mr Speaker, we on this side, we are unable to support the government in its quest to impose E-levy at 1.75% on Momo and associated transactions including remittances and bank transactions. Therefore, we stand to oppose and everywhere that E-levy is introduced, we will stand united to oppose it because it will inflict hardship on the Ghanaian people. ”
He suggested that instead of burdening Ghanaians with the levy, monies recoverable from the Auditor General’s report can be made to compensate for it.
This is not the first time the Minority group in the Legislative House are contradicting themselves.
Early this year, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, member for North Tongu and Murtala Mohammed, member for Tamale Central crossed swords over car loans for parliamentarians.
Whilst Okudzeto argued forcefully that it was morally wrong for them to take the car loan being advanced to them by the government, Murtala held contrary view and accused his opposition colleague of previously taking the same loan, but has now turned round to preach against it.
Meanwhile, during yesterday’s debate about the modified budget, the Deputy Majority Leader, Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, whose argument centered on the beauty of democracy, indicated that it was out of the notion of democracy that the Minister modified the budget in order to reflect the concerns raised by the Minority caucus and other stakeholders.
He said the Minister indicated that there will be continuous engagement regarding the issue of the E-levy and indicated that the government believes that the essence of democracy is not to shut the door, but open it up for continuous engagement.
He assured the Minority that, despite the emotional displays and disagreement in the House, the Majority is ready to work with them for the sake of mother Ghana.
Come and Present the modification document yourself
Earlier, the Minority had wanted the sector Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, to come to the House and present the modified document himself. Presenting his argument, Mr Haruna Iddrisu said that the budget statement was an official document that was presented to the House, so if changes have to be made, then the one who presented it should appear before the house and make those modifications.
However, the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu, who was in the chair at the time, did not rule in the minority’s favour. He announced the presence of the document in the House and charged the Table office to distribute copies to members for their perusal and comments.
