Parliament has approved the controversial 17.5% Special Petroleum Tax bill.<\/p>\n
The approval was given by only the Majority Members of Parliament (MPs) after the Minority MPs staged a walkout<\/strong> <\/span><\/a>during a debate on the bill.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”XO3SHIps6uiXxqXyDZJv8PxOAS4UhYjf”]Finance Minister, Seth Terkper submitted the bill<\/strong><\/span><\/a> to Parliament on Wednesday after his presentation of the 2015 budget statement to the House.<\/p>\n The Minority MPs served notice they will not allow Ghanaians to be subjected to paying high prices for petroleum products since the price of crude oil has drastically reduced on the world market.<\/p>\n MPs were subsequently forced to stay in Parliament to debate and approve the bill on Wednesday night because the bill was to go through a certificate of urgency.<\/p>\n The certificate of urgency means all the three stages involved in passing a bill; the first reading, the second reading and the consideration stage and the passage of the bill were all done tonight.<\/p>\n The bill is expected to be submitted to the President for it to be signed into law.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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