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

The post Parliament passes Energy Sector Levies Amendment Bill appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

[contextly_sidebar id=”nd6fQhUu2SKKniRYbs5WB7I56ABzkOhJ”]As a result, the government says it will revise the energy sector levies.

Mr. Agyarko who believes the power challenges facing the country are largely financial, is also optimistic the new plan by the NPP should create a more flexible system to deal with the matter.

The Minister Nominee made the revelations when he appeared before Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Monday.

“We will revise the energy sector levies for the simple fact that if we rely on the present tax fiscal space to deal with this matter, we will not get very far. If we rely on the local banks who have exceeded their single line obligors in order to reify the problem we have we will not get very far,” he stated.

“We will start by reviewing the levies downwards and as we finish the financial engineering of the non-recourse approach then it may be necessary not to have it altogether or use it as part of the dedicated stream of revenues to service the ten to fifteen year tenure,” Boakye Agyarko added.

The Energy sector levies were introduced in December 2015.

The primary aim was to among others, raise revenue to meet the increasing debts owed major institutions in the energy sector, that is the Volta River Authority (VRA), Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

The government subsequently in July 2016 restructured the 4.4 billion cedis (1.4 billion dollars) debt with the major banks owed in the country.

As part of the arrangements, the government together with the Bank of Ghana agreed to create an escrow account to transfer 250 million cedis to settle part of the debts owed to 12 banks in the country.

In addition, the dollar component was reduced from 11 percent to 8.5 percent, while the cedi component was reduced from 30 to 22 percent.

Government has since made two separate payments to the affected banks.

While lauding the current plan embarked on by the government, Mr. Boakye Agyarko described the move as woefully inadequate, explaining that the decision to adopt non-recourse financing should improve the situation.

“The restructuring that is currently being done, in my estimation is woefully inadequate, it’s a good intention but woefully inadequate, that is why I used the word non-recourse financing so that we can get the space not on the books of records of the agencies and the sector players or the local banks,

“As I review the single line obligor of local banks I am frightened that the banks mentioned herein are all on their way to receivership and we can’t allow that to happen in an economy.” He concluded.

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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post We’ll reduce energy sector levies – Boakye Agyarko appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

“The NPP promised the people of Ghana that if they don’t want dumsor they shouldn’t vote for us. And now the people of Ghana had confidence in them, they voted for the NPP, they expect that all the levies and tax will be scrapped immediately as promised.”

Nana Addo prior to the December 7 polls assured to scrap what he described as killer and nuisance taxes including the energy sector levies if Ghanaians voted for him.

[contextly_sidebar id=”OtjfWi82GZa0fWYZmXHGzB3GmK6tOoCI”]The passage of the energy sector levy resulted in the prices of petroleum products shooting up by 27%. Electricity and water tariffs also shot up astronomically; a move the NPP said worsened the plight of Ghanaians.

Speaking on Eyewitness News on Wednesday, the outgoing deputy minister said the NPP must honour its promise.

“We took that decision in the best interest of the country. We took that decision because we were convinced beyond reasonable doubt that, that was the best decision for this country and there was no alternative. And I will stand by that decision President Mahama took any day. We said we needed the levy because there was some financial issue. When PURC increased the tariff, the NPP said when they come they will reduce the tariffs. We had to take some of the tough and painful decisions in order to sustain power but they say that they have a way of dealing with it and they can still reduce the tariffs, let’s see how it goes. But sometimes we must face the facts and be frank to the people of Ghana. Some of the decisions are tough, some are difficult but the truth is that if you don’t take those tough decisions you risk collapsing the entire power sector,” he added.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Scrap energy sector levies as promised – Jinapor to Nana Addo appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.