MDAs charges now under regulation

Parliament has passed into law a ‘Fees and Charges’ bill that empowers the Ministry of Finance to ensure Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) justify any request for increase and/or introduction of Fees and Charges in a bid to stem incessant and arbitrary charges in the MDAs.

A final report submitted by the Chairman of the Committee on Subsidiary, O.B. Amoah, after deliberations presented it on the floor of parliament as required under the standing order 166 (3) and recommended that the Finance Ministry inform Parliament and the public on the suspension of any imposition of Fees and Charges from any institution.

According to O.B.Amoah, the Committee observed that the proposals in the Instrument were in line with Regulation 20 of the Financial Administration Regulation, 2004, which provides that “all MDA’s responsible for collecting various types of fees and charges are required on annual basis to review the administrative efficiency of collection, the accuracy of past estimates and the relevance of rates, fees and charges to the current conditions and submit proposals through the appropriate sector minister to Parliament for approval”.

Parliament also directed that all MDA’s review their fees annually through the Finance Ministry. “Only Parliament has the responsibility to impose taxes, levies” said Papa Owusu Ankomah, MP for Sekondi.

Among other recommendations contained in the report is that the Fees and Charges Instrument should be laid in Parliament to coincide with the presentation of government’s financial policy (budget) to the House by the Minister for Finance. It will enable the MDAs to start collecting the fees and charges at beginning of the financial year.

The Finance Ministry informed the Committee that most of the MDA’s have conducted estimations of the revenue to accrue from proposed revised charges, and added the estimates to their annual revenue projections for 2015.

Another observation contained in the report is that most MDA’s rely on Internally Generated Funds (IGFs) to run their institutions, and therefore increase and introduce Fees and Charges on annual and frequent basis.

“It appears there is no consistency in the level of percentage of Fees and Charges retained by MDAs as IGF,” O.B. Amoah explained.

Some MDAs like the Food and Drugs Authority and Ghana Standards Authority rely heavily on IGFs, while others like the Gaming Commission are prevented from using their IGFs.