E-levy bill to be reintroduced
Banda MP says government did not engage stakeholders on the Bill
Ahmed Ibrahim, MP, Banda, has been explaining why the controversial Electronic Transaction Levy, E-levy, will not be part of the business of the House this week as Parliament resumes for its third session.
Speaking to Joy News, the Minority Whip expressed his utmost surprise at the government’s failure to present the E-levy bill to the business committee of Parliament for its subsequent re-introduction to the House.
The MP accused the government of going all out to party during Christmas rather than seeking and finding ways to address the concern of stakeholders involved in passing the bill which ended the last session of Parliament abruptly.
“I’m very worried that for the whole recess, government who was confronted with a lot of challenges for his inability to push through e-levy went to celebrate the Christmas instead of choosing to meet the stakeholders who mattered in executing this kind of business, and I’m very surprised,” Ahmed Ibrahim said.
The Deputy Minority Whip further indicated that, neither the ruling government nor any of its Party members made any attempt to reach out to members from the opposition side to deliberate on the E-levy during the recess.
He added, the E-levy will not be reintroduced before Parliament for this week.
“So it will interest you to know that government or nobody in the NPP MPs or nobody I the NPP Ministers, or nobody in the executive including even the President of the Republic and his Chief of Staff have met or engaged anybody in the Minority, not even the Minority Leader or the Party or the MPs within this recess.
“So today I was not surprised that we went for business committee meeting, to my belief government could not table the e-levy as part of the business to be executed in this week. So the e-levy is not on the business statement for this week,” he said.
“Government says he’s now going to consult. So government is now telling us today that he’s now going to consult the Minority, Civil Society Organisations, the political parties, and all those people who matter in the passage of the bill.
“But my question is why did government choose not to do this in the recess? So the uncertainty in the economic landscape will linger on for some time,” Ahmed Ibrahim stressed. Read Full Story
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