Parliament has passed the Energy Sector Levies Amendment Bill which will review the two components of the Levies downwards.
While the national electrification scheme levy goes down from 5% to 2%, the Public lighting levy reduces from 5% to 3% per kilowatt hour of electricity charged on all categories of consumers.
The reduction in the levies will cost government about GHc 308 million in revenue losses.
But justifying the need for the cuts on the floor of the House, Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah says the reduction will bring relief to electricity consumers.
“Government as part of the 2017 budget statement and economic policy has proposed to reduce or abolish some taxes in order to bring relief to consumers.”
“Pursuant to that commitment, government introduced this bill to amend the energy sector levies Act (2015, Act 899) as part of measures to reduce the energy sector levies imposed on consumers,” Dr. Assibey Yeboah said.
Meanwhile, a loan agreement for the sum of 22.5 million dollars for the purchase of vehicles for the use of MPs has been laid in the house. It is expected to be passed today.
Minority displeasure
The Minority in Parliament has already chastised the Akufo-Addo government for failing to honour its promise of reducing the prices of electricity.
The Minority argued that the reduction in the public lighting levy and others in the budget are woefully inadequate and would result in only minimal relief for consumers.
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By: Duke Mensah Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana