The minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament (MPs) on Monday vehemently opposed the passage of the National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy (Amendment) Bill, 2017 because they said it is their brainchild which the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) wants to unduly benefit from.
The National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy (Amendment) Bill was first introduced in 2013 by the then NDC government – which became an Act to help raise funds for the government to stabilize the economy that was suffering from external shocks.
At the consideration stage of the Amendment for 2017 at the committee level, the minority members on the Finance Committee refused to approve the Levy.
During the second reading of the Bill on Monday, the deputy minority leader, James Klutse Avedzi and the minority chief whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, strongly opposed the debate, raising questions about lack of quorum to debate such an “important” bill.
The first deputy speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, however, allowed the debate to continue, with the members of the majority NPP accusing the minority of intentionally trying to stifle business of the government.
The ranking member on the Finance Committee, Cassiel Ato Forson, argued during the debate that extending the life of the National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy (Amendment) Bill, 2017 to 2019 – which might have yielded GH¢263.2 million to the state over the period – is like imposing a new tax that would further increase the corporate tax for companies.
According to him, the NPP promised during the 2016 electioneering campaign that it would reduce the corporate income tax from 25% to 20% when it came to power; but up till now nothing had been done to that effect.
Mr Ato Forson, who is the NDC MP for Ajumako/Enyan/Essiam in the Central Region, claimed that the minority could not be part of the passage of the bill because it is detrimental to the growth of businesses in the country. He recalled also that the NPP said in opposition that it was going to reduce corporate income tax to help distressed companies.
Mr James Klutse Avedzi remarked that the passage of the bill did not meet the requirement of Section 100 of the Public Financial Management Act because it did not come to parliament with impact analysis.
The Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation and MP for Tafo in the Ashanti Region, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, stressed that the conditions considered for introducing the bill in 2013 by the NDC are still prevailing and therefore it is important that after the NDC had completely destroyed the economy, the life of the Levy is prolonged to help raise more funds to help stabilize the economy.
Dr Anthony Akoto Osei noted, “You people destroyed the economy so much so that you had to run to the IMF for bailout; and when the NPP took over the economy it had been completely destabilized by the NDC government’s bad policies so we are now doing our best to stabilise the economy.”
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