Bole Bamboi MP Yusif Sulemana says the International Monetary Fund (IMF) asked government to either increase revenue by 0.2% of the GDP in the 2024 budget or cut expenditure by the same amount.
He said government considered the upcoming elections and the need for funds to implement projects and opted to raise revenue through tax imposition.
“And so yes. 15% of the tax imposition on electricity consumption would give us 0.2% of GDP. That is the direction they want to take. You know this is an election year. We would need cash. We would need money. There are instances where we can use these funds to directly influence individuals.
“There are instances where some strategic project would have to be executed. We need money to do that. Let us take the money and go and do those projects.
“If we can commission projects in an election year, we will be able to dish out money for our campaign activities, and so going in for the 0.2 % GDP, we should get that from taxation, hence the imposition of the 15% tax on electricity.”
Speaking on JoyNews on February 7, the Public Accounts Committee member disclosed that the government had the option to decrease expenditure, which could have included reducing the size of the government.
He noted that if the president had reduced the number of ministers, it might have hurt the party.
Mr. Sulemana pointed out that many government appointees who are not actively contributing might not support the party if they were dismissed.
“You think the secrets that they know about the government, they would not expose them? So it is between reducing the size of government, reducing your expenditure and imposing taxes on the Ghanaian, and they have decided that why not let us impose taxes on them, and that is where we are. Now that they have imposed the tax, Ghanaians are crying.
“Today, if they are saying they would come back to Parliament and read a new budget, and in the budget, they would reduce expenditure, the World Bank is fine with that. Anything aside from this, you would have to implement the 15% imposition of tax.”
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 asked government to either increase revenue by 0.2% of the GDP in the 2024 budget or cut expenditure by the same amount.){kind=link}