Member of Parliament for Banda, Ahmed Ibrahim, has disclosed that nobody on the majority side or from government engaged the minority on the proposed e-levy during parliament’s recess.
Expressing worry, he revealed that for the entire recess, government, which is confronted with a lot of challenges for its inability to push through with the e-levy went to celebrate the Christmas instead of choosing to meet the stakeholders who mattered in executing such kind of business.
“So, it will interest you to know that government or nobody in the NPP MPs or nobody in the NPP Ministers, or nobody in the executive including even the President of the Republic and his Chief of Staff have met or engaged anybody in the Minority, not even the Minority Leader or the Party or the MPs within this recess”.
Ibrahim Banda
Following this, Mr Banda noted that he was not surprised that “they went” for business committee meeting and government could not table the e-levy as part of the business to be executed this week.
“So, the e-levy is not on the business statement for this week.”
Ibrahim Banda
The Banda legislator explained that government has indicated it’s now going to consult the Minority, Civil Society Organsiations, political parties and all those who matter in the passage of the bill. According to Mr Ibrahim, the stalemate within the country regarding the passage of the bill will persist for a while as government commences engagement on the e-levy bill.
“But my question is why did government choose not [to] do this in the recess?… Because you are the very person who is complaining. We were on recess, and the Speaker said go and engage so that by the time we resume cool heads will prevail, you chose not to do that… We went for business committee meeting you’re saying you’re now going to do the consultation. So, can you blame we in Minority of obstructing government business? The answer is no”.
Ibrahim Banda
Government’s failure to reach a compromise on proposed e-levy
Meanwhile, President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has disclosed that government has failed to adequately explain why it refuses to back down on its proposed 1.75% rate as E-Levy.
He emphasized that government has only been trumpeting promises of employment creation and accelerated development. Mr Cudjoe explained that it would be beneficial to know why the government insists on maintaining the E-Levy at 1.75% instead of reaching a compromise on a much lower rate.
“The greater challenge is that they are not communicating effectively why they want to maintain the 1.75%. It’s just that it should be done and part of it will be used on employment and rations. Seriously?”
Franklin Cudjoe
Frankiln Cudjoe noted that the government’s claim of using proceeds from the E-Levy to create employment was a scam as these schemes were unsustainable and were unprofitable to the country’s economy. He intimated that he has always questioned the rationale for government to tax people and later create all these “employment scams”.
“I call them scams, from the days of GYEEDA and what have you. There’s a proliferation of these schemes as well. Government has no business in setting up or creating these jobs that they always say they’re trying to create. In any case, you’d have thought that the private sector would be incentivized enough to create the jobs”.
Franklin Cudjoe
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