Major (rtd) Derek Oduro, a former Deputy Defence Minister, justified the 2022 budget, claiming that “no one uses water to fix a country but money.”
Reading the 2022 budget in Parliament, Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta stated that the government has chosen to charge all electronic transactions.
Electronic transactions, including mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments, and inward remittances, will be charged at a rate of 1.75 percent, according to him, with the exception of inbound remittances, which will be borne by the recipient.
To make the action more efficient and targeted, he added, the government has halted 50% benchmark values on selected general products and 30% benchmark values on cars.
Major(rtd) Derek Oduro stated no president has ever utilized his pocket money to develop the country on Atinka TV’s morning show, Ghana Nie with Ekourba Gyasi Simpremu, and that taxing was the best way to proceed.
“We all know that if we want to fix the country and we’re holding banners calling on the government to fix the country and we’re jumping, we don’t use water to fix a country; we use money to fix a country,” he remarked.
“No President has taken money out of his pocket to fix the country; it’s all taxes, grants, and loans,” he continued.
The NDC, according to Major (rtd) Derek Oduro, realized that introducing taxes was the best option and chose to go on radio stations to make it look terrible in the eyes of the public.
Despite being rocked by the covid-19 pandemic, he said the NPP government was fixing the country, adding that the government was using a novel strategy to create money to fix the country.
Meanwhile, Major (rtd) Derek Oduro said the public should give the NPP-led government credit for abolishing a number of taxes, including the Kayayee tax, claiming that all of these taxes existed under the NDC.
“We call it Agyenkwa budget, what they call wicked budget.” We overheard them state that it is the ideal approach for any government to raise cash, and that the budget fits all criteria when it comes to tax incidence, equity, clarity, and economy. “Anyone transmitting money below GHc100 will not be taxed,” he stated.