You now have your E-levy; solve the problems – Asiedu Nketia tells govt

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Asiedu Nketia, has said that the approval of the E-levy is going to expose the government.

He indicated that the government had blamed almost every problem on the non-approval of the E-levy by Parliament. Therefore, with the policy finally approved, Ghanaians are going to observe whether all these problems will be solved.

Speaking in Parliament after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo delivered the 2022 State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Wednesday, March 30, Mr Nketia said: “The whole process has been turned upside down. We have a president who says he believes in the rule of law and yet he is urging his people do everything that is not according to law.

“I was not [in Parliament] yesterday but what I saw amounts to abuse of all the processes in the House. So, technically, I do not consider that the right procedures have been followed in whatever approval that has been made but there is a principle that when there is the wrong judgment it still remains a judgment until it is revised. We will go back to the drawing table and we will see whether we will proceed to continue with the fight about E-levy.

• E-levy: Checkout transactions to be affected and exempted

“But the important thing is that whatever approval that they claimed they have made is rather going to expose them more. Because we are in this country where everything that is not happening well has been blamed on the non-passage of the E-levy, including the payment of contractors, including the non-release of the common funds, including the non-release of GETFund, health insurance, and all that.

“Now you have your E-levy, let us see that in the coming weeks, all these problems will be solved or you expose yourself as a lying government.”

President Akufo-Addo said, among other things during the address,

that he is happy that the E-levy has finally been approved by Parliament.

Parliament on Tuesday, March 29 approved the E-levy after the Minority had walked out. The Minority opposed the Bill because, in their view, it was punitive.

President Akufo-Addo in his address said “Mr Speaker, despite the protracted and sometimes acrimonious nature of proceedings, I am happy that the House has, finally, found it possible to pass the e-levy. I believe the levy is going to make a significant contribution to revenue mobilization and the management of the economy, and I want to thank Members of the House for making this possible.

“The road to recovery will be hard and long, Mr. Speaker, but we have started on a good footing by accepting that we are in a difficult place, and are taking the difficult decisions that will get us out.

“If anyone ever had any doubts about the need to be self-reliant, the point has now been forcibly drilled home to us. The pursuit of the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda is even more compelling now.

“I have no doubts whatsoever that we have it in us to build the Ghana of our dreams. I saw the spirit of togetherness and the willingness to help each other when COVID-19 struck. We looked out for each other.

“I saw the sense of enterprise and innovation of the Ghanaian. I saw our manufacturers quickly adapt their plants to produce sanitizers and our tailors equally quickly displayed the innovation they had always been known for, by turning face masks into fashion items.”