A member of the Joint Committee of Trades , Industry and Tourism and MP for Bole Bamboi, Mr Yusif Suleiman has told journalists that minority members on the committee have voted against the GH¢80m budgeted for the National Cathedral, as part of the Ministry of Tourism’s budget estimate for the year 2023.
“We have voted against it and we are saying that this is not the time for us to be spending such huge sums of monies in building a cathedral,” he said.
According to him, what led to the minority’s decision was the inability of the National Cathedral Secretariat who met the committee to account for the GH¢339m that it had expended on the Cathedral already.
He also alleged that the Secretariat could not explain why the Cathedral has been brought under the Ministry of Tourism. He said the minority perceived that the Secretariat only wanted to use the Ministry as a conduit in order to get money to continue with the construction of the Cathedral, hence the decision to vote against it.
He, however, assured members of the Parliamentary press corps that the minority side of the House was not against the Ministry of Tourism’s budget and that they would go ahead to approve it, excluding the GH¢80m money for the National Cathedral.
He also said he was certain that other committees responsible for issues of VAT, E-levy and haircuts on pensions will act in the best interest of Ghanaians.
Earlier, two pressure groups, Arise Ghana and Justice for Ghana called on Members of Parliament (MP) to shoot down Value Added Tax, E-levy, monies allocated for National Cathedral and the Debt Restructuring Program components contained in the 2023 budget.
“We expect our parliamentarians to shoot down the following: one, the VAT, two, the E-levy, three, the pensions being touched under the restructuring and finally the Cathedral,” the group said.
Representatives of the group, Prince Derrick Adjei for Arise Ghana and Selorm Dramani of Justice for Ghana, indicated this to the Parliamentary Press Corps in Parliament yesterday.
The demands come as Parliament is likely to consider the tax components in the budget before it rises today.
Explaining why they made such demands on the MPs, Mr Derrick Adjei said the Cathedral should be taken off Ghana’s books completely and the monies spent so far retrieved because the public purse has been badly hurt by the commencement of the construction of the Cathedral.
“The Cathedral project is one of the things that we have been championing to be halted… Fortunately the Cathedral has been suspended, but we want it taken completely off Ghana’s books; completely halted,” Mr Adjei said.
The second component Mr Adjei spoke about was the haircut on pensions in the Debt Restructuring Program. He said the two groups do not want pensions of Ghanaians to be touched and called on parliamentarians to ensure that aim is achieved by voting against it today.
“The other sensitive thing that we will be addressing is the Pensions. We believe very strongly that Pensions of Ghanaians must not be touched and, therefore, we want that also taken off the books as far as the restructuring of our debts are concerned,” he said.
On taxes, Mr Adjei said that the group does not expect more nuisance taxes such as the Electronic Transfer Levy and the VAT.
Specifically on E-levy, he said parliament should ensure that it does not approve the levy in its current form, where there is no threshold for the poor, while on VAT he said the group does not expect any increase.
The Spokesperson for Justice for Ghana, on his part, said that the President should not even attempt to continue the construction of the Cathedral because he does not have the moral right to do so, based on how he has mismanaged the country so far.
Mr Dramani indicated that the President has not been truthful to Ghanaians in the management of the economy and even with regards to the monies being expended on the national Cathedral. He said God abhors lies and does not need a person who thrives on lies in the management of an economy to build Him a Cathedral.
