VAT Amendment Bill will not affect rates

Mr Alban Bagbin, the Minority Leader on Friday explained that the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill would not affect the current tax rate. The Bill only seeks to correct some technical defects that the Minister of Finance, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo claimed to have been inimical to the operation of the VAT law.

Mr Bagbin was talking to the press in his office after he had moved in Parliament that the House should not take the second reading of the Bill in the absence of the Finance Minister.

This was when Papa Owusu-Ankomah, the Majority Leader moved that the Bill should be debated and that the Finance Minister, who had travelled outside the country, would be briefed on his return.

Mr Bagbin said the need for the Finance Minister to be present during the debate on the Bill was paramount since he had to explain the technical terms that the Amendment Bill was seeking to introduce.

"The VAT Law (Act 546) has been in operation for about four years now and that any inadequacies or anomalies that the Finance Minister has identified should be explained by Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo himself," he told the press.

Papa Owusu-Ankomah agreed with his colleague and the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Freddie Blay, who was presiding, consequently deferred debate on the Bill till the Finance Minister returned.