Parliament has approved the Akufo-Addo government’s 2017 budget, amidst protests from the Minority Members of Parliament.
According to the Minority, the House lacked the quorum at the time of the budget approval.
In a Citi News interview, the Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, accused the Speaker of Parliament, Mike Ocquaye of exhibiting bias in the matter.
“What he [Speaker] did was very unfortunate, and we are considering whether we should not come with a substantive motion about the conduct of the Speaker,” Mr. Mubarak said.
“With the greatest respect to him… what he did was wrong. He abused the Minority which was just not fair. We are going into a caucus meeting to determine whether we can come using our rules.”
The Minority Chief Whip also suggested that, Majority MPs were not serious about government business.
“If they knew they were going to approve their policy, by 10:00am, all the 169 Majority MPs should have been here. We should not have been struggling over the numbers,” he stated.
The passing of the budget took place after the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, presented four Bills to Parliament for the proposed tax cuts in the 2017 budget.
The bills presented were; the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, Special Petroleum Tax (Amendment) Bill, Special Import (Amendment) Bill and Customs and Excise (Petroleum Taxes and the Petroleum Related Levies (Repeal) Bill.
The 2017 budget is seeking to abolish and review 15 key taxes, but the proposed tax cuts can only take effect after it has received parliamentary approval through amendment of existing Bills.
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana