E-Levy Tax Debate Brouhaha: Dr. Adomako Kissi Urges Colleague MPs  To Maintain Decency

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Anyaa Sowutuom constituency  in the Greater Accra Region, Hon, Dr. Dickson Adomako Kissi, has called on colleague parliamentarians to help maintain “certain decency” in the House of the parliament on their next proceedings.

According to the health expert, he was not happy about the current clashed between the majority and minority in the parliament in the debate of the of the proposal cost of the 1.75 percent charge on e-transactions that are above GH₵100. 

The Majority and Minority caucuses in Parliament are currently on a head-on collision following the introduction of government’s proposal to place 1.75 percent tax on all electronic financial transactions, popularly referred to as the e-levy.

While the Minority caucus has vowed to kick against the government’s proposal because the tax would overburden Ghanaians, the Majority contend that it is a progressive tax that would contribute to national development.

However, the MP described the clash as unfortunate, adding that; since the MPs are law making bodies they must show examplery leadership attitude to their constituents.

Dr Kissi was speaking in an interview with soireenews.com when he organised free health screening programme for constituents to climax this year's Christmas festive season.

Reacting to the recently occurrence at Parliament being an MP, Dr Kissi appealed to the members of both the political parties in the House that, they must maintain dignity while sharing their views on the proposal of E-Levy budget statement.

The MP stated that agreements and disagreements are part of the democratic dispensation process but the members should maintain certain decency while debating over an issue that, they can play the guiding role to save the parliamentary democracy from losing its sheen.

For his part, the New Patriotic Party (MP) Women Organiser of Anyaa Sowutuom Constituency, Madam Rosemond Addae, popularly known as  Ama Beyiwadoe attributed all the recent occurrences in the parliament to disunity among the majority and minority lawmakers.

He indicated that they have observed that some utterances that the NPP members of parliament said affected some parliamentary candidates to be unpopular.This, according to him, has given 
political weapons to opposition parties to use against NPP during the 2020 general elections which affected the NPP to loose more seats in Parliament.

He therefore used the opportunity to caution NPP members to desist from that act in order to break the eight (8) to continue to be in power stressing, it's only when NPP come into power that, they can do a lot for the Ghanaians. He cautioned the NPP MPs in parliament to be mindfull of what they will say in parliament during the debate on the national issues . According to him, they should all know that some pronouncements are not good to be use against the opposition MP's because the more they starts making negative comments; that may give the political weapons to energize the opposition parties. 

Meanwhile, some agents and users of Mobile Money (MoMo) have expressed their displeasure at government’s proposal. Speaking with Soireenews in Accra, some distraught mobile money agentsand users at the Kaneshie, Odawna and the Central Business District (CBD) markets said the directive was absurd and unacceptable. According to some agents, they were already earning little to nothing as commissions from their transactions so issuing the directive was like “adding salt to injury.”

An agent at the CBD market who gave her name as Ivy Padmore told the Ghanaian Times that government was just being inconsiderate and unfair to both agents and users stating that “government only wants our business to go down the drain.” “Already the telecommunication companiesare giving us meagre percentages on all transactions we do while they take the chunk of it,” she added.

Akua Frema, a user similarly stressedthe view that there was no need for the additional charges as people would have no interest in the use of the mobile money as they would prefer dealing with cash.

“So if government is adding more percentages then it means we are still losing out and will have to pay more charges which is discouraging,” she added

Mr Lexis Amoateng, an agent at the Odawna market said he seconded the fact that it was needless for an addition of charges because “that will eventually render most people jobless because they will no more be patronized.”