Member of Parliament for Sekondi, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, has said the only reason the E-levy policy proposal in the 2022 budget statement ahs not gone through is as a result of the attitude of the Minority in Parliament.
He told Roland Walker on the News 360 on TV3 Monday January 24, “the only reason we have not been able to get this through is as a result of the attitude of our friends from the other side.
The Minority has rejected the E-levy proposal.
The Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu said the E-levy policy is a disincentive to the growth of digital economy.
To that end, he said, the Minority would not support it.
Speaking at a post budget workshop in Ho on Saturday November 20, 2021 he said “Mr Speaker, understandably, we see that the Minister of Finance seeks to introduce some measures including the now popularly declared e-levy or digital levy as some have quite named it.
“Mr Speaker, our concern is whether the e-levy itself is not and will not be a disincentive to the growth of digital economy in our country . We are convinced that the e-levy may as well even be a disincentive to investment and a disincentive to private sector development in our country. We in the minority may not and will not support government with the introduction of that particular e-levy . We are unable to build national consensus on that particular matter.”
Member of Parliament for Yapei Kusawgu, John Jinapor said the opposition lawmakers had not been engaged on the proposal by the Majority on the proposal.
Mr Jinapor told Tv3’s William Evans Nkum on the sidelines of a townhall meeting held by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Kumasi on Monday that “They haven’t engaged us, you can ask them, who have they engaged?
“Have they engaged the leader, have they engaged the chief whip? Have they engaged the party? You cannot build consensus alone, you build consensus with people. I can confirm the Majority side has not engaged members of the Minority.”
But Mr Egyapa Mercer who is also a Deputy Minister of Energy said “I do not know what the MP for Yapei Kusawgu means when he says that there has been no engagement,. You recall that before Parliament went on break there were attempts at trying to build consensus between the two blocks.
Source: 3News