The Member of Parliament for Buem, Kofi Adams, has lambasted the clerks at table of Parliament for counting strangers in favour of the Majority caucus following the passage of the 3 new taxes.
A livid legislator placed the blame on the doorsteps of the clerks of Parliament for the passage of the bills on March 31, 2023.
The Minority caucus has come under heavy criticism over the passage of the bills.
Speaking on the Point of View on Citi TV, hosted by Bernard Avle, Mr. Adams said if the clerks at table had been truthful during the head counts, the bills wouldn’t have been passed.
“If the clerks were truthful, if they had truly counted the people they are supposed to have counted and not counted strangers, [the bills wouldn’t have been passed]. That was the best strategy to go for,” he stated.
Asked if the Minority knew if all 137 Majority MPs were present in the House during voting, he said, “at the time we were taking the vote, the person we knew was not in the house was the deputy majority chief whip, Seyram Alhassan, but she finally came in. At that time we didn’t know that the Nanton MP, Mohammed Tuferu was not around”.
He reiterated, “it’s a bit difficult to tell the presence or absence of virtually everybody in the house. Our intelligence told us that Mohammed Tuferu has had an accident and was on his way.
Parliament on Friday, March 31, passed the Excise Duty Amendment Bill 2022, the Growth and Sustainability Levy Bill, 2022, the Ghana Revenue Authority Bill 2022 and the Income Tax Amendment Bill 2022.
The financial bills seek to raise about 4 billion Ghana Cedis annually as part of domestic revenue mobilisation.
The bills are also crucial to aid the government’s quest to facilitate the Board Approval for the $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) Programme staff-level agreement.
The Minority in Parliament earlier communicated its opposition to the bills, but the bills were passed despite an MP from the majority suffering a near-fatal accident on his way to the House.
CNR
