Dr Kwabena Duffuor, a former Minister of Finance, has berated the government following the passage of the controversial Electronic Transfer Levy (E-levy) Bill.
He said the government’s decision to pass the unpopular levy despite wise counsel from economists such as himself meant the Akufo-Addo-led administration was not a listening government.
Lamenting after the E-Levy was passed, Dr Duffuor noted that the government had progressed in their passage of the bill and despite the hardships of the citizenry and disaffection for it, the government ignored concerns and added to their tax burden.
“Many Ghanaians have openly kicked against the E-Levy, which was passed by the Majority Caucus in Parliament despite a walkout by the Minority Caucus in Parliament despite concerns raised by citizens to abolish the passage of the levy but the government refused to listen to them and passed it to inflict more hardships on us.
“Just like many well-meaning and experienced economic specialists offered several suggestions on alternatives to the E-Levy, the government has shown disaffection to Ghanaians by ignoring our concerns which is disheartening.
“Currently in the country, foreign interests are largely the main beneficiaries of our extractive sector at the expense of Ghanaians who benefit from low revenue from our natural resources so we must start looking at the sector we have ignored over the years,” Dr Duffuor decried.
According to him, a well-managed natural resource centre had emerged as the safest route to prosperity in many developed countries such as the US, UK, and Germany and pointed out that the country must go back and renegotiate its mining agreements for higher revenues rather than stick to colonial agreements to the detriment of the people.
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