The vice president, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is under pressure to speak on the economy. A section of the public is calling on the vice president to do his usual economic lectures or Townhall meetings to tell Ghanaians how the cedi is performing, why fuel prices are increasing, the E-levy and the general increase in prices of food and transport. These calls come as the recent fluctuation of fuel prices and other factors have influenced prices of almost every good or service in Ghana.
The fluctuation of Fuel prices in the past few weeks has affected almost every commodity in Ghana. Prices of Goods and services are constantly on the rise. People have taken to social media to announce the price hikes and how it has affected standard of living. Food commodities like milk, sugar, oil, tea, gari, kenkey, rice amongst others is constantly on the rise. For example, they say that kenkey that use to sell at GHS1.00 today it sells at GHS2.00 minimum and a very small one sells at GHS1.50. This, they say is abnormal.
E-LEVY
There is also a call to support the non-approval of the e-levy. On 17 November 2021, Ken Ofori-Atta said the Government of Ghana decided to tax all electronic transactions in the informal sector to cover the tax net. He made this known in the 2022 budget statement and economic policy that was read in the parliament of Ghana. 1.75% is the rate of the E-levy which the Government decided to apply on all transactions. Ken Ofori-Atta said it could raise about $1.15billion which will widen the tax net. According to John Kumah – Deputy Finance Minister, the money generated from the levy would be used for the payments of contractors in Ghana. Also, revenue from the levy would be used to support entrepreneurship, cyber and digital security; road infrastructure and provide jobs to about 11million people in the country. The Government of Ghana said that the introduction of the levy was due to the rise of the use of digital platforms for transactions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has raised serious backlash especially from the Minority in Parliament. They have adopted several ways to stop the approval of the bill. This has weakened the Governments plans to raise this revenue to correct the financial challenges in the Ghanaian Economy.
Others have called for government’s special intervention to reduce the untold hardships on the ordinary Ghanaian as prices of everything is going up. They say that Government’s inability to hold the cedi from depreciating against the dollar is killing businesses and raising the prices of the goods and services. Government is accused of allowing the cedi to go on a free fall. It currently stands at GHS7.6( or just about that) against 1 dollar.
These economic challenges are happening so fast in the past few weeks. The public, especially the NDC and its sympathizers are calling on Dr. Bawumia to speak on the current state of the Ghanaian economy. They emphasis on the fact that the economist is too quiet about the exchange rate and the E-levy. They refer to previous media engagements where the Vice President explained that it didn’t make sense to tax ‘momo’ (electronic transactions), so what has changed. They play videos of his previous lecture where he explained how to manage an economy effectively and wondered why things are on the ‘fall’. They tease the government of ‘breaking the 8’ with fuel prices instead of the 2-term governance experience in Ghana.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is yet to make direct and official statements of the e-levy and the cedi depreciation. Meanwhile, NPP communicators and party supporters consistently defend the e-levy with the details of the intensions behind the introduction of the levy. Other government supporters compare other economies and assert that it’s a global trend. They share data of fuel prices of other countries in Europe and the Americas comparing it to Ghana.
With all of these, some members of the opposition are ‘loudly’ calling Dr, Bawumia to speak on the economy. They are sure he will have nothing to say as most of previous claims are negating under his own watch. Politically, they demand him to redeem his credibility by speaking on the current state of the economy. People who defend the economist, Dr. Bawumia, say he will speaks at his own time as it has always been. They even challenge the opposition to organize lectures or town halls to tell Ghanaians what they think instead of the demand for the vice president to speak.
Some political experts suggest that the opposition have a fine opportunity to put pressure on the government with suggestions that will favor the standard of living of Ghanaians. This will earn them some political attention. But they also lay cautions that it must come from a knowledgeable person with deep knowledge in Economics. They cite the Kwesi Botways public lecture as good one but with less political impact for the NDC. Such a challenge will go a long way to deepen issue-base politics in Ghana, hence promoting the Ghanaian democracy.
Story by Focus Lim
