Ken Ofori-Atta, the minister of finance, has added his voice to the chorus of people pleading with Parliament to swiftly pass the three new tax bills the government has proposed.
In his opinion, the lawmakers ought to act in the best interests of the country.
Speaking on Thursday, March 30 at a conference in Accra, Ken Ofori-Atta said “Our Parliament, in the national interest, will pass these bills before the close of the week and it will not be seen as disloyalty to anyone party. So if I may be permitted to use the word fellow Ghanaians, we are a blessed nation…I am more convinced now than ever that we are a blessed nation.
“A week ago I was in China to meet their Finance Minister and various institutions about support for an IMF programme and the Lord certainly went ahead of us.
“Ghana is a big country, the Minister of Finance is a big man but the Minister of Finance of China gave us the Ghana delegation almost an hour and a half conversation. Not only did he do that he also called the chairman of the Exim Bank of China to join him to talk through these ways in which they can facilitate to make sure we get our IMF transaction.
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“So indeed America is ready for us, we saw Kamala Harris here, Germany has been here, the Europeans are behind us, the Fund is behind us. It is left with our Parliament. It can’t be that we shoot ourselves in the foot. Let us rally behind our Parliamentarians.”
The calls from the finance minister come after a similar request was made to lawmakers by the minister of information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.
If the bills are not urgently passed by Parliament, he warned of the repercussions.
If the government’s efforts to close the domestic revenue gap continue to stall, he claimed, things will get very difficult.
As it looks to raise GH4 billion annually to shore up revenue to fix the failing economy and secure a Board approval for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government is under pressure to have three new revenue bills passed by Parliament.
