I'm Super-Excited The E-Levy Has Been Opposed - Nana Ofori Owusu
National Chairman of Progressive People's Party (PPP), Nana Ofori Owusu has backed calls for the rejection of the e-levy proposed by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, meant to compensate for the removal of road tolls in the country.
Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta announced the e-levy during his presentation of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy before Parliament on Wednesday, November 17, 2021.
According to him, the e-levy "will be used to support entrepreneurship, youth employment, cyber security, digital and road infrastructure among others".
He added "...this new policy also comes into effect (once appropriation is passed) from 1st January, 2022. Government will work with all industry partners to ensure that their systems and payment platforms are configured to implement the policy."
But Nana Ofori Owusu is unconvinced with the reasons for introducing the e-levy.
To him, it will aggravate the economic pressures on Ghanaians.
He therefore wondered how the Minister thought there would be no mass opposition against the e-levy, hence questioning the procedure in arriving at the e-levy.
''I am not convinced. The argument on it is not overwhelming. What amazes me is that they didn't prepare us, as citizens, to even embrace it'', he stated.
He stressed ''...when you do that, you get resistance because these are 275 very intelligent noble men and women who deserve that you place it before them for them to scrutinize all these documents and make their arguments for and against, and go through the process. This is what you do in a nation of thinking people. That is what you do. Because we have history of bulldozing, people are still in that mentality of bulldozing''.
He was excited that the e-levy is suffering asserting ''the excitement is that you can't always push your things through without consensus building''
''When there are issues and we don't put these things on the table for us to scrutinize as a people and have a voice in the process, we end up with bad [bad] policies in the government'', he further stressed.
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