By Edzorna Francis Mensah
Minority in Parliament has forced Government to vary some of its policy proposals contained in 2023 Budget Statement and Economy Policy as the House passed the Appropriation Bill under severe criticism.
In all the Minority has successfully won seven of the eight points they raised since the reading stage of the Budget Statement by forcing the Government through the Majority side in the House to step down some of the proposals.
The last sitting of the year to end the second session of 8th Parliament lasted for over 14 hours and the House passed the Appropriation without the controversial GHS 80 million allocations to the National Cathedral.
They also forced the government to step down projections to establish new diplomatic missions in Jamaica, Mexico and Trinidad & Tobago shot down and government equally cut down request for the infamous Contingency Vote drastically to GHS533million from
initial GHS1.4billion.
In his statement to inform Ghanaians about what transpired in Parliament in the early hours of Thursday, MP for North Tongu Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa stated some of the items listed below as the Minority’s success story.
1) GHS1.3billion (€116million) Accra International Conference Centre Demolition and Redevelopment
5) Anti-poor proposal to remove the e-Levy threshold defeated;
6) Scrapping a colossal GHS27.5 million allocation to the wasteful and amorphous Special Development Initiatives Secretariat & the needless Monitoring and Evaluation Secretariat all at the Office of the President. The 2 Secretariats have therefore been virtually collapsed;
7) Defeated the repugnant tax measure intended to compel drivers, particularly commercial drivers to produce tax clearance certificates as a requirement for renewing driver’s license;
Mr. Okudzeto however, acknowledged one of the setbacks leading to the passage increment in VAT….”objectively and sincerely, despite an unwavering determination of the NDC Parliamentary Caucus to achieve all we set out to accomplish in solidarity with suffering Ghanaians, we lost the crucial VAT vote by a narrow 136-135.
This is the only item on our 8-Point Must-Win-Agenda which we failed to deliver, and for which we are deeply pained. We did our very best but as they say, it’s always difficult to win everything. Nevertheless, we live to fight another day.
Together, with a high dose of patriotism and unquestionable integrity, we shall construct the Ghana we want”.