We can’t say your ‘F’ is better than our ‘F’, Haruna Iddrisu teases govt
NPP members blame NDC for failure of E-Levy
The minority caucus in Parliament has urged the government to stop shifting blame for the current economic challenges the country is facing which has forced it to seek an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.
The leader of the minority caucus of Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu suggested that his side cannot be blamed for the failure of the government to meet its revenue expectation because of their objection to the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy).
Speaking to the media at Parliament onWednesday, Iddrisu added that Ghanaians refused to pay the E-Levy because of its unpopularity.
“They should stop any attempt to shift blame. E-Levy remains an unpopular tax instrument and, therefore, the fact that it passed does not mean that it has the support of the minority.
“We rejected it because it was unpopular … we rejected it because it is double taxation. Indeed, in many jurisdictions, it will not stand constitutional acceptability.
The minority leader, who is also the Member of Parliament for Tamale South, teased the government for asserting that its reason for going to the IMF is better than the reasons why the John Dramani Mahama government went for a bailout.
The Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government is behaving “like a class six pupil who tells the mother that last year, I marked the NDC 'F' and after 5 years, they get an F and they say that my F is better than your F.”
Most members of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) are blaming the National Democratic Party (NDC) MPs for the failure of the government to meet its revenue target for the E-Levy.
Also, Information Minister Kojo Nkrumah said that the government’s decision to seek an IMF bailout was borne out of circumstances that are different from those that caused the erstwhile Mahama administration to do the same in 2015.
He stated that Ghana’s current economic crisis was brought about by external factors, not from domestic economic mismanagement as has been suggested by the opposition.
“That is why for example, from 2020, about half of the world’s countries are applying to the Fund for some support. It is not to say that all of the people who manage all of these over one hundred economies do not know how to go about their jobs but is it evidence of the fact that something external, something exogenous has hit, that is why today, Egypt, Kenya, I understand Tunisia is also applying for some sort of support, are asking for support,” he added.
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