The Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Atta has inadvertently confirmed the fears of many Ghanaians who are opposed to the passage of the controversial Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) by stating that Government intends borrow more to fix the road sector by using the E-levy as security.
In the Minister’s attempt to justify the untimely suspension of all road and bridge tolls just after the presentation of the 2022 Budget statement on the Floor of Parliament on December 17th 2021, Kwasi Amoako-Atta told Parliament that the Government wants the E-levy passed in order to securitize to raise a bond to construct roads.
He was responding to a follow up on an urgent question filed by the Ranking Member on the Roads and Transport Committee and the Member of Parliament for Adaklu, Governs Kwame Aagbodza, who had wanted to know “the estimated loss of revenue till date due to the cessation of collection of Road and Bridge tolls as contained in the Ministry’s press release dated 17th November 2021.”
The Minister said in his answer that, “the Government in its wisdom has proposed the passage of the E-levy to bring in more revenue to build the road infrastructure of our country for all of us. So, Government is looking forward to the passage of the E-Levy that will bring in greater revenue that would be securitized and then used to raise a bond if possible…to build the road sector infrastructure.
“So, Government’s direction and Government’s policy is to bring in a better form of collection because the toll revenue is built into the proposed E-levy.”
This is viewed by many as an unintended comment by the Minister because the Government is still out there to convince Ghanaians that the proposed E-levy is absolutely necessary to raise more revenue to finance the 2022 Budget and to avoid the incidence of returning to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial intervention.
Addressing a press conference at the sidelines of the sitting of Parliament, the Ranking Member on the Road and Transport Committee, Governs Agbodza surmised that the Minister had led the cat out of the bag by stating the real intentions of Government.
“He led the cat out of the bag by saying that when we pay E-levy, the Government was going to securitize and take bigger loans with the E-levy. In effect, E-levy will only give government the opportunity to do even bigger borrowing than they are doing now. So, E-levy will not stop us from borrowing because when you borrow you must pay back,” he said.
Source: Clement Akoloh||parliamentnews360.com
