Members of Parliament will, on Tuesday, November 29, 2022, begin debating the 2023 Budget Statement.
Addressing a post-budget workshop for MPs in Ho over the weekend, the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo Markin, said, “on November 29, 2022, it’s expected that the debate will focus on Finance, Agriculture, Trade and Industry, and Wednesday Communications, Energy, Roads, Works, Housing, Sanitation and Environment and Thursday, December 1, it will be Health, Youth and Sports, Education, Tourism, Culture and Chieftaincy.”
Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament is demanding a review of some revenue mobilization measures outlined in the budget, such as scrapping the daily minimum threshold exemption for the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) and a further reduction in the rate to 0.5%.
Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu warned that the decision to freeze public sector employment and cut down on numbers admitted into teaching and nursing schools would further exacerbate the worst unemployment canker.
He further warned that, though his side is willing to support the government’s effort to revive the economy, the 2.5% increment in the VAT rate will be treated with the NPP’s ‘Kume Preko’ demonstration against the introduction of the tax in 1995 in mind.
However, the Majority leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu called on the NDC MPs to support the government’s effort to address the economic crisis.
The two-day workshop empowered lawmakers and offered them insights into the 2023 budget as they ready themselves for the debate on the floor.