By: Ama Gyamfuah
Member of Parliament for Korle Klottey Constituency, Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings, has described the just ended budget presentation as uninspiring. She said, she was expecting the reading to at least have a show of understanding and empathy to the Ghanaian people, “and also state that some taxes will be realigned or reduced but that’s not what they did.”
Speaking to Sefah-Danquah on the Happy Morning Show on Happy 98.9FM, she said, “Looking at the current taxes we pay, there’s NHIL, VAT, Getfund and there’s also Covid levy. I don’t know what the Covid tax is for and I have an issue with it because we had a lot of monies for Covid, and we’re still asking for accountability but haven’t found out what they used the money for. So, what is the essence of the Covid tax we’re paying because we’re still unsure what the money is being used for.”
She stated that there is a lack of transparency on some issues, and these need to be clarified. The MP expected to hear those clarifications from the budget reading. “It just sounded as if it was going further down along the line of taxation again. Ghanaians are suffering and things are difficult, every other country is moving forward and I don’t know which country is charging their citizens Covid tax,” she added.
She added that giving the situation Ghana finds herself in, a lot of it was self-inflicted by the acts of corruption, poor governance issues in the country, and Ghanaians should not be made to pay the price for that.
“It was not an inspiring speech actually but I think perhaps because he’s a new minister, it was a little bit calmer because it wasn’t that previous showcasing but still, we expected a lot more especially given that we have an election coming up.”
Dr. Zanetor believes, there should be a show and an indication that there is that intention to do something to ease the suffering of Ghanaians, and unfortunately she did not see or hear that in the 2024 midyear budget review.