Ofori-Atta conferred with us but we disagreed on E-levy - Haruna

Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu has admitted Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta consulted the caucus before proceeding to the House on Tuesday, November 30 but they disagreed again on some aspects of his budget, particularly the Electronics Transactions Levy, popularly known as e-levy.

The Tamale South Member of Parliament said the consultation was to reach a consensus for the 2022 budget statement and financial policy of government to be duly approved.

However, he said their proposals to have the e-level reduced from 1.75 percent to 1 percent and increase the threshold way above GH¢100 were not accepted by the Finance Minister.

This he said caused the Minority members to absent themselves from proceedings in the House on Tuesday.

“They said it was their budget and they were not prepared to review their e-levy.

“So, Ghanaian people, we then decided that they just stand alone in it because we believe that it’s punitive as Prof Quartey said and it does not serve as a good tax instrument because it is regressive.”

The Majority, however, formed a quorum to adopt the motion of Mr Ofori-Atta as he laid it again, this time with First Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei-Owusu presiding over affairs.

Addressing journalists after Tuesday’s one-sided sitting, the Minority Leader said they were determined to get the Finance Minister make changes in order to have the economy running for John Dramani Mahama to take over in 2025.

However, he said, Mr Ofori-Atta remained intransigent.