The South Dayi Member of Parliament (MP), Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, has charged the government to account for funds it generated through taxes in the past.
He said the government is only interested in imposing taxes which are not used to undertake any developmental projects for the citizenry.
In an interview with Benjamin Akakpo on Prime Morning, Wednesday, the MP said the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government promises projects with no expected results.
According to him, there is no confidence in the government’s ability to put the proposed taxes to good use.
"We are not saying that government shouldn’t tax because nobody can say that. But demonstrate, account for the monies you have received from imposing other similar taxes. We have for instance asked them to audit the COVID-19 expenditure [but] they are not forthcoming, they don’t want to do that. So, don’t listen to government's propaganda when they say that we want development and yet we don’t want to be taxed, that’s not the point.
"You are already taxing us, we want you to account for the things. When in addition to tax you are borrowing in our name and attaching those borrowing to projects and you are not delivering the projects, we have the right to ask you questions," he noted.
Mr Dafeamekpor highlighted a number of taxes the government imposed yet, according to him, have not been put to proper use.
"This government is levying us for COVID-19 recovery; what have they done with that? Have they built a single hospital to say that for the two years or more that we’ve suffered COVID, this is what we’ve used the 1% COVID-19 recovery levy for?"
"This government says when they came to power, there were crises in the banking sector so they expended in excess of GHS20 billion to clean it up and as a result they are levying us; there is a banking sector cleanup levy, what exactly have they done with that levy? We want to know," he added.
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, during the presentation of the 2022 budget announced the introduction of a 1.75% levy on all digital transactions.
The levy will be borne by persons who send money through any digital transactions except for inward remittances which will be borne by the recipient.
The government is seeking to raise a total revenue of GH¢6.9 billion from taxes on the E-Levy next year.
Members of the Minority in Parliament have already served notice that they will not approve the new levy in its current form.
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