The Coalition for Social Justice has taken notice of the letter to the Rt Hon Speaker of Parliament, Alban SK Bagbin by the Minister for Finance Hon Ken Ofori Atta detailing some modifications to the budget statement presented to Parliament on 17th November, 2021.
These concessions in the letter according to the Finance Minister are in response to the demands made by the Minority Group in Parliament and the basis upon which they rejected the budget causing a stalemate in the parliamentary procedures necessary for the implementation of the budget in the 2022 fiscal year.
As much as the modifications capture the issues of Agyapa, Aker Energy, Benchmark Values and the Tidal Waves Disaster in Keta with a pledge to review them to reflect the expectations of the Minority Group which is quite commendable, the thorny and frustrating issue of E-Levy still needs some tinkering to forestall the envisaged burden that it will put on the average Ghanaian.
The decision to exclude bank transactions, remittances and merchant transfers from the levy does not make it any better for the average Ghanaian MoMo user.The Coalition for Social Justice is outrightly opposed to a tax that will ultimately place a huge tax burden on the already impoverished and vulnerable Ghanaian citizens who are struggling to make ends meet as a result of five years of incompetent and insensitive leadership by Nana AkufoAddo and Dr MahamuduBawumia.
The high cost of rent, food, rent and transport which constitute basic necessities in our society has not spared any Ghanaian citizen much more the low income earners and the unemployed who form a greater percentage of our country’s population. With this in mind, we expect the government to explore opportunities to cushion these categories of people to ease their suffering and burden rather than introducing a tax that will further take away from the insufficient disposable incomes.
The Coalition in applauding the Minority Group in Parliament for the resilience so far, wishes to implore Parliament to seek a total scrap of this obnoxious and nauseating levy and not to negotiate for any reduction. The claim by the government that the levy will serve as the bedrock for the implementation of the YouStart Programme is only a bait to rope in revenue from the levy to fund other frivolity, frugality and opulence as has been demonstrated in the past five years.
…..signed………
AwuduIshaq
(Secretary)
0244947573
…….signed……..
BrogyaGenfi
(Operations Director)
0249582140
