Approval of 3 taxes: How did the majority get 137 votes? – Kwesi Pratt asks

The managing editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has questioned how the Majority Caucus of Parliament managed to get 137 votes for the new taxes the government was introducing to be passed.

According to him, there is no way the majority caucus could have garnered this number of votes because at least two of its members were reportedly not present in the House at the time of the voting to approve the taxes.

He said that the fact that the House passed the bill even though the majority caucus did not have the numbers shows that Ghana’s democracy is not working.

Prat Jnr, who made these remarks during a panel discussion on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana programme, on Friday, called for a probe to ascertain whether the taxes were legally passed or not.

“The votes that were announced for all the three taxes were 136, 137 and we know that wasn’t possible. To start with, there was one person who was allegedly not in Parliament at all.

“So, if he was not in Parliament how could they achieve the vote of 136, 137, impossible? Then there was the MP who had an accident, who was rushed to Parliament, he voted for the first two taxes, (but) he was not in the chamber when the last vote was being counted. So, how could you have had 137, 136?

“That is very mysterious. I have called for an investigation but nobody is listening. So, the democratic order itself is not working,” he said.

He also said that the decisions made in the House on most occasions are not in the interest of Ghanaians.

He added that even if the taxes were legally passed, the majority of Ghanaians were against their approval.

Background:

Parliament passed three new tax measures on Friday, March 31, 2023, during an extended sitting of the House.

The said taxes also faced stiff opposition from the Minority Caucus in the House, but the Majority managed to marshal all their numbers on the day to get the taxes passed.

The three new taxes are: Excise Duty Amendment Bill 2022, the Growth and Sustainability Levy Bill 2022, and the Income Tax Amendment Bill 2022.

The bills were presented to Parliament as part of the government's plans to mobilize about GH¢4 billion in domestic revenue annually.

They are, according to the government, also crucial to helping secure board approval for the US$3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program after a staff-level agreement was reached late last year.

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