The New Juaben South Constituency of the Opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, on Thursday, February 17, 2022, embarked on a counter engagement with market women and taxi drivers to correct what they call misinformation spewed out by the Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, Micheal Okyere Baafi on the e-levy when he embarked on similar engagements this week.
The NDC is described as a lies assertion by the MP that IMF may force the government to cancel Free SHS if e-Levy is not accepted and Ghana runs to the Britton wood Institution.
The NDC team told the target audience that, the Akufo-Addo led government has borrowed over Gh460 billion more than any government increasing Ghana’s debt stock to an unsustainable level yet has nothing to show for the use of the money.
They also exposed what they call unprecedented corruption and profligacy as well as wastage of state funds on renting private jets for the president’s travels.
“We are here as a result of some misinformation that the Honourable Member of Parliament for New Juaben Hon. Michael Okyere Baafi peddled exactly a week today regarding the obnoxious pickpocket e-levy.
He visited several markets last week to peddle an untruth that the minority members of parliament agree with the policy behind the obnoxious e- levy that they are unable to voice it out for the fear of a negative public reaction. He went ahead to say that if we are unable to pass the obnoxious e- levy and we happen to join IMF it will be given a condition to cancel the free senior high school policy”.
The Eastern Regional Communication officer of the NDC Dallas Ampomah Williams who led the team explained to that, “we engaged separate market women to educate them on the e-levy and to make them understand that if you take their budget from 2017 to 2022, it is clear that so far they have spent just about 7.2 billion on the free senior high school, we are also aware that the resource envelope that has been made available to this government is more than over 460 billion and so if you do a simple calculation, and deduct 7.2 billion from 460 billion, you realize you are still left with about over 452 billion which indicate that the honorable member of parliament lied because per their budget statement we have enough money to cater for the free senior high school for over ten years so you cannot say that just because we are unable to approve the obnoxious e-levy, the free SHS will have to collapse and so the market women were happy to listen to this important information”.
On the assertion that the Minority in Parliament supports e-levy privately, Dallas Ampomah Williams told the taxi drivers and market women that, it false.
“We educated the market women that the Ghanaian parliament as it is constituted now, is made up of 138 members of parliament on the side of the NPP and 137 members on the side of the NDC so if they are willing to pass the obnoxious e-levy all they need is a simple majority of 138 and it will be passed but because the majority group is even not in agreement with their government, they always find a way to escape from the floor of parliament, they give flimsy excuses, the last time I heard on honorable member saying he had stomach upset that’s why he had to leave the chamber, someone also saying he had to see his dentist, another also said he had issues with his brain so he had to travel for a brain surgery so it is a clear indication that even the NPP members of parliament are aware of the negative effects of the obnoxious e- levy”. He said.
The market women at the Juaben Serwaa Market furiously called on President Akufo Addo to drop the e-levy.
According to them, the levy will burden them, worsened hardship being experienced in the country, and will have a serious effect on their business which they are even struggling to repay loans with interest is taken.
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Obed Ansah
