<<Print>>

Ghanaians must brace themselves for harsher living conditions, with prices of fish and farm produce set to hit the roof in the coming days, as Parliament, on Wednesday, approved a request by the Mahama-led administration to levy some agricultural and fishing inputs imported into the country. The items to be levied include outboard motors, fishing nets, agricultural machinery, diary milking machines, clubs and arrows, as well as cutlasses. This means the extra amount of money spent by farmers and their colleague fishermen in acquiring the above-mentioned inputs would be passed onto the final consumer, thereby raising the cost of living in the country. Other items listed to attract the special import levy, include energy saving bulbs and book binding machines. The amount of money expected to be imposed on the aforementioned items at the point of entry was immediately not known. Parliament had granted the request of the government, following its adoption and subsequent passage of the Report of the Finance Committee on the Special Import Levy Bill. Initiators of the Bill had argued that due to the funding gap in the country�s 2013 Budget, totaling GH�8 billion, there was the need to identify other avenues for revenue generation to help mobilise funds to finance the funding gap in order to reduce the budget deficit. The Bill, therefore, seeks to impose a Special Import Levy on selected imported goods at the points of entry. With the passage of the Bill, the West African country is expected to bag in an estimated revenue totaling GH�208 million from the imposition of the levy for the remaining half year (July � December) of 2013. The Deputy Minister for Finance and Member of Parliament (MP) for Ajumako/Enyan/Essiam, Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, commenting on the move, said the revenue, when mobilised, would �ensure fiscal stability and provide resources for investment in social services and infrastructure across the country.� Earlier, the House, by consensus, rejected a proposal by the government to impose a one percent levy on fertiliser, which it is subsidising for farmers, on grounds that the levy would �increase the cost of fertiliser, and ultimately lead to increased food cost.� That notwithstanding, the House argued that the introduction of the one percent levy on fertiliser has the potential to impoverish the many subsistence crop farmers, most of whom were below the poverty line. Contributing to the debate on the Bill, the MP for Sekondi, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, pleaded with the House to extend the same courtesies as it did to fertiliser to that of the outboard motors and fishing nets, in order not to overburden fishermen. In effect, he proposed an amendment to delete the request of the government to impose a special import levy on outboard motors and fishing nets at the points of entry. �By parity of reasoning, the amendment should be extended to outboard motors. We should delete any levy to be imposed on outboard motors,� noted Papa Owusu-Ankomah. But, his proposal was objected to by the Deputy Minister of Finance, who argued that since the government was already subsidising the cost of fertiliser, the introduction of the levy would defeat that purpose. However, in the case of the outboard motors, the government was subsidising premix fuel at a rate of more than fifty percent, and so putting a levy on the said item was appropriate. After back and forth arguments, Papa Owusu-Ankomah�s argument was defeated by a majority voice vote, when the Speaker called for a voice vote on his submission. Also commenting on the government�s request was the MP for Manhyia South, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, who charged the government to drop its request to levy energy saving bulbs imported into the country. According to him, the government, in an attempt to conserve energy, distributed compact energy saving bulbs free of charge in 2004 and 2009, and so placing a levy on the said item would defeat the purpose of the government�s campaign to conserve energy in the country.