Finance Minister lying about compromised 1.75% e-levy - MP

Member of Parliament for Sagnarigu, A.B.A Fuseini, says it is not true that the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has compromised the 1.75% e-levy on all electronic transactions, especially momo.

According to him, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta was not interested in compromising the 1.75% e-levy in any way, saying it is not true that he might do anything about it.

The 2022 budget statement was on Friday rejected by the country’s Parliament after a heated debate.

The rejection was made possible after all 137 Minority members of Parliament voted against the motion while members of the Majority Caucus had abandoned their seats in protest against alleged bias on the part of the Speaker of Parliament.

Prior to the crucial voting, the Speaker had called for a head count to establish if the House had formed a quorum in order to proceed.

A quorum was formed per the Speaker’s judgement even though members of the Majority caucus had staged a walkout.

All members of the Minority Caucus proceeded to reject the 2022 budget when the question on the motion for the approval of the budget was put out.

But on Tuesday, the budget was approved by the Majority in the absence of the Minority.

While in parliament to make further deliberations on the 2022 budget, the Minority suggested that the budget’s approval be reversed.

But the First Deputy Speaker overruled the motion by the Minority Leader to reverse the approval of the budget leading to attempts by some Minority MPs to snatch the Mace, which is the symbol of authority in Parliament.

After the back and forth over the 1.75% e-levy, the Minister said there was a compromise, noting that the 1.75% could drop to 1 %.

Speaking on Atinka TV’s morning show, Ghana Nie with Ekourba Gyasi Simpremu, A.B.A Fuseini said, "Our main issue was that he cancels the 1.75% E-Levy but he has not cancelled. He does not even want to remove 00.1% from it.”

"He has not mentioned any 1 percent. At the last time he said he wanted to speak about it to the public about some policy measures he wanted to introduce, he went to mention the same 1.75%; he is not interested in any compromise,” he added