E-levy not on Parliament’s business statement for this week – Ahmed Ibrahim
The Member of Parliament for Banda, Ahmed Ibrahim has revealed that the government at Parliament’s business committee meeting on Monday, failed to present the e-levy bill to be reintroduced to the House.
The Finance Minister had earlier indicated that the bill will be brought back to Parliament for further deliberation when the Hose reconvenes on Monday.
However, speaking on JoyNews; PM Express, Ahmed Ibrahim revealed that that did not come on due to government’s inability to hold engagements with interested parties on the bill.
According to the Deputy Minority Whip, the government instead of holding engagements with stakeholders during Parliament’s recess went about celebrating the Christmas instead.
“I’m very worried that for the whole recess, government who was confronted with a lot of challenges for his inability to push through e-levy went to celebrate the Christmas instead of choosing to meet the stakeholders who mattered in executing this kind of business, and I’m very surprised.
“So it will interest you to know that government or nobody in the NPP MPs or nobody in the NPP Ministers, or nobody in the executive including even the President of the Republic and his Chief of Staff have met or engaged anybody in the Minority, not even the Minority Leader or the Party or the MPs within this recess,” he said on JoyNews’ PM Express.
He added that “So today I was not surprised that they went for business committee meeting to my belief government could not table the e-levy as part of the business to be executed in this week. So the e-levy is not on the business statement for this week.”
Meanwhile, “Government says he’s now going to consult. So government is now telling us today that he’s now going to consult the Minority, Civil Society Organsiations, the political parties and all those people who matter in the passage of the bill. But my question is why did government choose not do this in the recess?”
According to Ahmed Ibrahim, the uncertainty in Ghana’s economic landscape will linger for a while as government commences engagement on the e-levy bill.
“Because you are the very person who is complaining, we were on recess, and the Speaker said go and engage so that by the time we resume cool heads will prevail, you chose not to do that. Today we went for business committee meeting you’re saying you’re now going to do the consultation. So can you blame we in Minority of obstructing government business? The answer is no,” he said.
Source: Ghana News
