Ranking Member on Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has expressed disappointment in the majority in parliament over their approval to present the E-Levy Bill before the House for further deliberations.

According to him, at the meeting, both sides needed to first determine whether they can consider the electronic transfer levy bill on a “certificate of urgency” or not. Mr Forson explained that the minority argued that it cannot be considered under certificate of urgency owing to the fact that it has received various petitions from groups such as the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication, E-commerce Association of Ghana and others who believed they have an alternative way of generating revenue as against what the government seeks to do.

“Without understanding the need for us to listen carefully to the people that have issued press releases and others that have submitted memorandum to parliament, we are sad. We are sad not only because we lost but we felt that the NPP does not believe in democracy and if they are determined to do something, they want to push it regardless of the cost”.
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson

Minority invokes standing order 211

Mr Forson indicated during the voting process on the bill and per order 211 (5), which the minority invoked, the chairman of the committee does not have an original vote but only has a casting vote. He revealed that the chairman decided to exercise his right under the “casting vote” and voted in favour for the minority to consider e-levy and the certificate of urgency.

“The NPP majority decided not to listen to us. We in the NDC, led by myself, invoked our standing order, order 211, that calls for a division. So, we subjected the decision to a vote. At that point, the NDC, 12 members on the committee, voted against it and the NPP, 12 members on the committee, without the chairman, voted in favour of the motion that they should carry it on the certificate of urgency”.
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson

Following this, Mr Forson indicated that the minority opted to sit-in and not “boycott” the processes in a bid to get the bill “improved” or “delete it” completely.

“To start with, we propose that we delete the clause of the bill that impose the tax at 1.75%. We have said that we do not believe mobile money transactions should be taxed. Our posture is that don’t tax momo”.
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson

Mr Forson expressed that if care is not taken and mobile money transaction is subjected to tax since the demand is “elastic”, it may affect the use of the service and derail all the gains Ghana has made in a “cash light” economy.

Subsequently, he revealed that the NPP again failed to listen to the minority on their reason for rejecting the e-levy bill leading to another voting using the standing orders 211 of which the majority won using the same approach. Mr Forson revealed that at first it was a “tie” and the chairman decided to exercise his right again under order 211 (5), leading to awin for the majority.

The ranking Member on Finance Committee of Parliament emphasized that he has not seen a tax policy of this kind before, urging for the levy to be rejected.