Parliament approves 2021 budget

This was done through a vote between members of the majority and minority group.

 137 MPs voted in favour of the approval while 134 voted against it.

Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, on Friday, 12 March 2021, told Parliament that the government is introducing a 10p sanitation and pollution levy; and 20p excess power capacity levy, both on the Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA) with the combined effect being an increase in the ex-pump price of fuel by 5.7 per cent.

Additionally, the government is introducing a 1 per cent COVID-19 levy on VAT, Flat Rate Scheme; 5 per cent financial clean-up levy on banks’ profit-before-tax and also considering adjusting road tolls to align with current trends.

But speaking at a virtual post-budget forum by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mr Ofori-Atta called on Ghanaians to support the budget.

He said: “This budget is a battle cry and it’s for all of us to be part of it, to burden share and going forward we have some 8700 projects and we’ve targeted them for completion so that that culture of not completing projects we do away with.”

Finance Minister-designate Ken Ofori-Atta said the budget was a “battle cry” and, therefore, every Ghanaian must take part in sharing the burden.

According to him, there are many projects that have to be completed by the government.

He made the comment after a section of the populace expressed misgivings with the timing of some new taxes announced by the government in the budget and economic statement.