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Majority, Minority negotiation on e-levy proposal in stalemate
Parliament reconvenes today
Member of Parliament for the North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has defended minority MPs’ resolve to subject government business especially the 2022 budget statement to thorough scrutiny before lending its support to it.
His comment comes on the back of the overlord of the Asante Kingdom, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, calls to MPs not to frustrate government business.
“We elect people to represent us to make sure there is some equilibrium in what governments do. It is to our good that our representatives in Parliament subject the national budget to the most rigorous scrutiny and to call for changes.
“Government must also have the humility to acknowledge and embrace the useful inputs from all sources, but our representatives need to bear in mind that it is not their role to either determine policy or to frustrate the executive from performing their legitimate duties,” the Otumfuo said.
But taking to social media, the North Tongu legislator indicated that some members of the NPP, including the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and Majority leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, will look back into time and be proud of how they “frustrated a number of matters they felt strongly about, including boycotting President Mahama’s message on the state of the nation and boycotting the vetting of his ministers on the instruction of party leaders as they pursued their legal challenge of the 2012 election outcome.”
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa thus maintained that minority MPs should not be seen as serving as an impediment to government business in the House.
“Parliament exists in a democracy as a countervailing force to keep the executive in check and curb impunity. When other MPs exercised their oversight mandate in the past, they were hailed as nationalists; those who do same now must not be cast in a different light. Good conscience, genuine feedback from our constituents and the supreme national interest shall continue to be our raison d’etre,” he said.
The Minority MPs are on an uncompromising position with government on the announced electronic transaction levy otherwise known as e-levy in the 2022 budget statement and economic policy.
The levy is expected to have a 1.75% charge slapped on all transaction on digital platforms including mobile money.
