Parliament on Tuesday adjourned Sine Die without concluding voting on the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy).
The controversial Bill was the subject of a huge fight on the floor of the House on Monday compelling the First Deputy Speaker who presided over the sitting to adjourn to the following day.
The House, however, failed to conduct business on Tuesday after Majority leader and leader of government business, Osei
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, moved for adjournment just after correction of the Votes and Proceedings.
The House is expected to resume on 18th January 2021 to resume deliberation on the E-levy.
Majority leader
The Majority leader addressed the media afterwards and described the events of Monday as very shameful and an embarrassing moment for Ghana’s Parliament.
“I think all of us in Parliament must bow down our heads in shame for this gross dereliction of responsibility and must apologise to the people that we represent in Parliament,” he said.
He expressed displeasure at the absence of the Speaker for the sitting and cautioned one person cannot be allowed to hold the House at ransom.
According to him, leadership had an indication the Speaker will join the House at 9:00 am but the time kept changing with another excuse being received at 11:30 am that he would join the House at 12:00 pm.
“The House cannot be held to ransom by one person and I think it’s most unfortunate. The Speaker yesterday told the First Deputy Speaker that he was handing over to him, and will come back to relieve him but we heard later that he had left the House,” he said.
The leader denied claims the Majority dragged its feet in bringing business to the floor on Monday and explained a Finance Committee meeting delayed the beginning of sitting.
According to him, when the House eventually resumed the Speaker handed over to the First Deputy Speaker with the assurance he would return to relieve but departed without any communication.
Hon. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu noted the House therefore adjourned to Tuesday morning with the hope Speaker Alban Bagbin will will take his chair but failed to show up.
He assured the government has a budget contrary to speculation and the Appropriation Bill has also been passed.
He indicated the E-levy is an integral part of the budget and going to feed into the revenue considerations of the government with an expectation it will contribute about GH¢9 billion to government chest.
Minority leader
Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu, on the other hand, urged the government to accept Ghanaians voted for a hung-Parliament in order to deepen consultation and reach out to the other side of the Ghanaian population who don’t want excessive partisanship.
Speaking on E-levy, the Minority leader stated President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo does not understand the taxes his government is introducing.
MTN, he said, charges on fees and not transactions and stressed there is a mark of difference between charges and levies on fees, and charges and levies on transactions.
According to him, the E-levy is rather going to make MTN richer considering the fact that Vodafone does not even charge fees on its network.
He said, “This is a windfall for them because they will shift away from charging fees, which are limited as ratios of money.”
He averred that Parliament is not about the Majority and indicated the Minority is happy with the current composition of the House because the side is no longer going to do business as Minority.
Source: MyPublisher24.com