Member of Parliament for the Buem Constituency under the ticket of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Kofi Adams, has disclosed reasons behind the minority’s walk-out during the passage of the e-levy bill.
According to him, the minority caucus was uninformed about the deliberation of the e-levy as part of the day’s agenda and therefore felt ambushed.
The NDC lawmaker disclosed that the minority caucus has consistently been left in the dark after seeking transparency from the majority members and the Business Committee with regards to the e-levy.
“Our standing orders provides that the chair of the Business Committee presents business for the ensuing week which normally starts from Tuesday and terminates on Friday. So consistently for the past three or four weeks, we in the minority side have asked the majority leader and Chairman of the Business Committee or whoever presents Business statements on his behalf every Friday, about when the e-levy was going to be introduced properly and appropriately for us to consider it at least for the second reading. We have never had an answer to that effect. Sometime past, some business statements that were presented captured e-levy as an item to be considered for a particular day. Since then, it vanished and never spoken of,” he said.
In an interview with Samuel Eshun of Happy98.9 FM’s ‘Fact Sheet’ show, Kofi Adams emphatically said the minority was only informed the previous week about the President’s appearance on the floor of the house, when they were only expecting some ministers in the house to give answers to the public’s plight.
He said, “So on Friday, when the Business statement was presented on behalf of the Chairman of the Business Committee via the Majority Chief Whip, Hon. Annor Dompreh, nothing was said as far as e-levy is concerned. What we were told was the President’s appearance in the house on Wednesday to present a message on the State of the Nation. However, we got to Parliament today and in the order paper for the day’s business, we found e-levy as one of the items or motions advertised to be taken through the second reading. It was a surprise for us but we got ourselves ready, mobilized our side, and went to the chamber waiting for that time and ministers who were supposed to appear before the house to answer questions didn’t come so business of the day was varied to take that motion. ‘…The Finance Minister was called upon to move the motion for the second reading. It was then moved, seconded and we raised an earlier objection that we don’t have our copies of report of the Finance committee of Parliament. Therefore, for us it was impossible to participate in the debate or follow the debate without having copies of the Finance Committee report.”
The third reading of the controversial e-levy was on Tuesday March 29 passed after Speaker Bagbin said, “Honourable members, the Electronic Transfer Levy Bill 2021 duly read the third time and passed.” This was also after the Minority members of the house walked out as they deemed the introduction of the agenda inappropriate.
Meanwhile, the Minority Leader of Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, together with his colleagues Mahama Ayariga and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa have dragged the Attorney-General to the Supreme Court over the approval of the Electronic Transactions Levy. The Tamale South MP and his colleagues want the Supreme Court to declare that the said approval was contrary to law.
By: Jude Tackie
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