Minority Explains Walkout Move As Parliament Passes 17.5% Petroleum Tax

Parliament on Wednesday passed the 17.5% special petroleum Tax on Ghanaians as presented in the budget. The sitting which saw the minority walk out of parliament was characterised with heated debates for and against the tax. Despite this, the one sided House approved the Special Petroleum Tax Bill 2014 after taking it through all the stages a few hours after the 2015 Budget was presented. The imposition of the tax will lead to marginal increases in petroleum products. Presenting the Report of the Finance Committee for approval of the Special Tax, the Chairman of the Committee, James Avedzi said the revenue target for 2015 has taken into account the revenues to be raised from the Special Petroleum Tax from this month to December 2015. To this end, the Bill was considered to be of urgent nature hence the need to pass it in one day. Meanwhile, the Deputy Minority Leader, Dominic Nitiwul, explaining the walk-out said his side's move was to protest what he called an obnoxious law. He called on Ghanaians to reject the new law.