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Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah, Governance Lecturer at the Central University, has slammed the Members of Parliament over their conduct in the Legislative House and regarding their deliberations on national issues.

According to him, some of the Parliamentarians are very lazy that when subjects are broached in the House, they fail to scrutinize it.

He said this on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' in relation to the e-levy proposal by the Finance Minister before Parliament.

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, presenting the 2022 budget on Wednesday, November 17, stated that the "government has decided to place a levy on all electronic transactions to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector. This shall be known as the 'Electronic Transaction Levy or E-Levy.' Electronic transactions covering mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments and inward remittances will be charged at an applicable rate of 1.75%, which shall be borne by the sender except inward remittances, which will be borne by the recipient".

"Mr. Speaker, to safeguard efforts being made to enhance financial inclusion and protect the vulnerable, all transactions that add up to GH¢100 or less per day (which is approximately GH¢3000 per month) will be exempt from this levy. A portion of the proceeds from the E-Levy will be used to support entrepreneurship, youth employment, cyber security, digital and road infrastructure among others. 3y3 Baako, Ye nyinaa bey tua. Mr. Speaker, 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," he added.

Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah bemoaned the culture where some members enjoy partisan politics, so either see nothing wrong with the budget or everything right with it depending on which party one belongs to.

To him, he expects the Members of Parliament to dissect the budget to the understanding of Ghanaians but not to play their usual politics with it.

He called on them to objectively look at the budget in toto and cautioned them against having a 'see no evil, talk no evil' mentality or condemning every initiative by the opponent even when it will help Ghanaians.

"The Parliamentarians should scrutinize the budget. It's not just about being called Honourable. They should read the document. They should read it. Some of them are lazy!", he warned.

Dr. Otchere-Ankrah also raised issues with the members failing to supervise infrastructure developmental projects to make sure contractors don't do shoddy works.