Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini has alleged that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had made an express request for the passage of the controversial E-Levy bill into
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, turned 78 years and his birthday coincided with the minister of finance relaying the proposed 1.5% Electronic Transactions bill in parliament.
Ahead of parliament’s debate on the bill on Tuesday, the Tamale North MP took to his Facebook page to write that “our president doesn’t seem to be interested in a Black Stars victory as a birthday gift. I’m informed he requested the passage of E levy as a birthday gift. Almost all of his MPs are here in the House. Well, the Minority MPs are here too. So the Black Stars are on their own in faraway Nigeria. The President is leading us to focus on E Levy.”
However, the minority, following the commencement of debate on the bill, went ahead to stage a walkout from the chamber of parliament stating they could not be a part of further proceedings related to the E-Levy.
A one-sided majority house, however went ahead through the second and third reading process of the bill and effectively passed the E-Levy into law.
“We are not able to support the Electronic Transaction or Electronic Transfer Levy of 1.75%. we think that it is regressive, it smacks of double taxation and the people of Ghana should not suffer further taxes, financial institutions and banks should not be made to pay E-Levy.
“Therefore Mr Speaker I am serving you notice, I have listened, my colleagues have listened to me. Mr Speaker, because we do not support the E-Levy, the Minority group led by me after listening to the majority leader will not be associated with any further proceedings on the E-Levy. We want to be recorded that when the E-Levy was brought to the 8th Parliament, we stood together, we opposed it, we asked for its rejection and we said we would not support it,” Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu stated before leading his side out of the chamber.
