Government will soon lay before Parliament, the necessary instruments that would give legal backing to the scrapping and review of some taxes, the Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has revealed.
According to the Suame MP, the revisiew or abolition of over ten taxes in the 2017 budget, will only take effect after approval from Parliament.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, he said it was imperative Parliament approved the taxes before the budget is even approved.
“The budget is a very business-like matter before us and we’ll have to apply critical thinking and analysis to it. Once we are through with it, we also may need to deal with a lot of money Bills because the Finance Minister related to a lot of taxes; some of them to abolished, some to be reconfigured and so on and so forth.”
“These money bills, we may have to approve off before the appropiriation bill is concluded because they will have a direct impact on the budget, the outturns and the outcomes of the budget,” the Majority Leader explained further.
Anytime from today [Wednesday], Mr. Mensah Bonsu added, the money bills will start coming to Parliament for the relevant referrals to be made.
RTI Bill likely to come before House in May
Mr. Mensah-Bonsu also stated that, the Right to Information Bill, is likely to be re-laid before Parliament for the process of approval when the second meeting of the house begins in May.
“Because of the considerations that went into it, I guess the new government would have to factor in those considerations before being re-laid in this new parliament. It is my anticipation that, the next meeting which likely will be mid-May, that Bill may have a resurrection in the Parliament of Ghana.”
The Right to Information Bill was drafted in 1999 and reviewed in 2003, 2005 and 2007.
The first attempt at enacting the law on the right to information was made when the Bill was presented to Parliament on February 5, 2010.
The 6th Parliament of the 4th Republic, failed to pass the Right to Information Bill which has been on the Floor of Parliament since 2013.
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana