E-Levy: NDC showing bad faith and hard-line extremist politicking - Afenyo-Markin

MP claims majority and minority had an understanding on E-Levy

NDC wanted 1% E-Levy, Afenyo-Markin

Ghana will have to go for an IMF bailout if E-Levy is rejected, Finance Minister

Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, has stated that the NDC is showing bad faith and hard-line extremist politicking regarding the passage of the E-Levy bill.

According to him, both the minority and majority caucuses of parliament had come to some understanding on the E-Levy before the minority suddenly started taking its current entrenched position.

“When this E-Levy thing started, we had a special committee; both sides met and engaged as patrons. Our friends come with their position, how they wanted this done, they wanted a reduction, even the threshold they wanted it to be reduced further,” he said in an interview on Joy News’ ‘PM Express’ monitored by GhanaWeb.

“We had a certain understanding, and as a result of that understanding, we reported back... I reported 1.5%, and they were somewhere 1 per cent and a little above, and you remember Haruna Iddrisu publicly declared the 1 per cent, and they were on his neck; they wanted to kick him out of leadership.

“... at the point, they said no way, they were not even ready for the 1 per cent. So, negotiations broke down. We had several meetings; some senior members on our side joined leadership, and I was leading the team, and they also had their team,” the Deputy Majority Leader, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Effutu, said.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government is keen on implementing the E-Levy with Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta currently leading town hall meetings to explain the importance of the levy to Ghanaians.

The Minister has even stated that without the E-Levy, Ghana will have to go for an International Monetary Fund bailout, which he said will be “disastrous” for the country.

However, the minority caucus (NDC) has stated that they want the levy dropped. They even rejected a compromise made by the majority caucus and the government to reduce the levy from 1.75 per cent to 1.5 per cent.

According to the NDC, the proposed levy violates the basic principles of taxation and will affect the poor.