Parliament has passed the Hazardous and Electronic Waste Control Management Bill 2016.
The Bill which now awaits the President’s signature is expected to provide for the control, management and disposal of hazardous and electronic waste such as discarded computers, mobile phones and for related purposes.
[contextly_sidebar id=”auR4QpiiYnXaitGACJxAf0fMUk6zrjws”]The legislation also imposes a charge on the importation of electronic waste in the country known as the eco levy.
The collection and management of the funds however was a subject of controversy in parliament before the bill passed.
The Minority Spokesperson on Environment, Science and Technology, Francis Addai Nimoh believes the technical and financial functions of the entity to manage the collection of the Eco levy should be decoupled.
Speaking to Citi News’ Duke Opoku Mensah, the Mr. Nimoh insisted that a government institution should be mandated to mobilise revenue for the state.
“I was trying to propose that the collection of that money should be decoupled from the technical function of the assessment of the value to be paid so that in terms of the recipient of the money, it should be directly payable to a state institution like the Ghana Revenue Authority. We all pay our taxes and it goes directly to Ghana Revenue Authority. Somebody can do technical assessment for you, maybe you may not have the technical capability but what is it about receiving of money? And that is what I was proposing,” he added.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin