The Majority in Parliament has said that the Electronic Transaction Levy (e-levy) will be approved with or without the presence of the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dome-Kwabenya, Adwoa Safo.
According to the Deputy Majority Whip, Habib Iddrisu, a number of bills have been passed into law without the Majority having its full numbers in the House.
“It’s not cast in stone that without the presence of Adwoa Safo the e-levy will not be passed,” he said.
Mr iddrissu also rejected claims that the delay over the approval of the e-levy is due to the absence of the Dome Kwabenya MP from the Chamber.
The Dome Kwabenya MP, since the resumption of Parliament this year, has failed to show up in the Chamber regularly.
This has led to concerns that the NPP is unable to champion the government’s agenda because of the shortfall in their numbers.
But the Deputy Majority Whip, Habib Iddrisu, has denied that the absence of the Dome Kwabenya MP is negatively impacting on their numbers.
“I don’t know why people want to zero down Adwoa Safo to say that because she is not there, it cannot be passed. Adwoa Safo was there when the budget was passed, she was there when the abrogation was passed. E-levy has not been presented to Parliament, when the government is ready to take it, it will take it. We have been able to pass a lot of things in the house without the whole House and so the E-levy would be approved, with or without Adwoa Safo when the time is up,” he said.
In an interview with JoyNews on Thursday, he confirmed that the revised bill will reduce the levy from 1.75% to 1.50% and added that it will not be tabled before the House tomorrow due to the ongoing town hall meetings.
“The e-levy will definitely be approved because it is something that is very necessary for the development of this country. It is something that is very necessary so that government will be able to develop,” he said.
The Tolon MP also argued that those demonstrating against the e-levy do not reflect the views of the over 30 million Ghanaians. He insists the government will not back down on the levy.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Majority Whip further observed that a future NDC government will increase the rate of the levy.
He was responding to the General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who said his party will scrap the levy when elected into office.
“If there was a case the NDC will come to power they will not scrap it …If it was NDC who had won the 2020 election, they were bringing e-levy at 5% and they had done 17% of VAT. They would have done e-levy and no demonstration or any consultation would have been done.”
According to him, the NDC is protesting because of the numbers of the Majority in Parliament as compared to that of the Minority, adding that they don’t care about Ghanaians.
