Time Exposes NPP Government as Covid and Sanitation Levies Still Exist in the Books

Free water and free electricity were the trump cards of NPP as they matched onto the 2020 elections. Ghanaians believed their deceit and voted for them to retain power. After the elections, we were told that we have to pay for the freebies we enjoyed for some few months.

In the words of Former Information Minister, Kojo Opong Nkrumah, "When we say free electricity it doesn’t mean that the IPP producer is also going to say because the President has said free electricity I won’t charge for it. But that GH¢19 billion has to be paid for at some point. The liabilities we have incurred have to be paid for.”

This was the explanation provided by government when the introduction of Covid and sanitation levies were met with outright condemnation in the 2021 budget. Ghanaians eventually became aware that they were scammed into believing that the water and electricity were truly consumed without giving away a single Cedi.

During the 2021 budget reading, then Majority Leader, Osei Chei Mensah Bonsu, who was reading on behalf of the yet to be vetted Finance Minister proposed the "introduction of a COVID-19 Health Levy of a one percentage point increase in the National Health Insurance Levy and a one percentage point increase in the VAT Flat Rate." He further proposed the introduction of "Sanitation and Pollution Levy (SPL) of 10 pesewas on the price per litre of petrol/diesel under the Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA)." Remember the NPP in opposition declared ESLA as a nuisance tax.

The government in the same budget proposed an Energy Sector Recovery Levy(ESRL) and a financial sector clean up levy. On the specific issue of the financial sector clean up levy, government was proposing to charge 5 percent on profit-before-tax of banks to help defray outstanding commitments such as payment to depositors and other obligations resulting from the financial sector clean up of which GHC 21 billion was needlessly spent.

Time is a strong measure of man's integrity. The NPP promised to review all these taxes in 2024 but nothing was mentioned in the 2024 budget. Again, the midyear budget review did no talk of reviewing these levies and clearly government's lack of integrity has been exposed. Given the NPP's understanding of review to mean cancellation, we expected that these taxes are scrapped this year.

The painful thing about these taxes is that they could not fulfill their intended purposes. For instance, the Covid levy was to construct "Agenda 111 ‒ the construction of 100-bed District Hospitals in 101 Districts with no hospitals, 7 Regional Hospitals for the new Regions, including one for the Western Region, the construction of 2 new psychiatric hospitals for the Middle and Northern Belts, respectively, and the rehabilitation of Effia-Nkwanta Hospital in the Western Region." It was also to bring in money to procure Covid vaccines and recruit more health care professionals.

Unfortunately, not a single Agenda 111 project has been completed with several others yet to even be considered for starting. The 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 batches of nurses are still at home without work. Why not use the Covid levy to employ them as promised?

Again, the procurement of vaccines was dirtied with lots of corruption. The then Health Minister was accused of serious procurement breaches. When quarried by parliament, he admitted, "those were not normal times and I was seriously in a situation that could not make me think properly.”

When the Vice Chairman of the Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh asked if he (Health Minister) found nothing wrong with Sputnik-V vaccines being procured at $19 per dose as against $10 ex-factory price, the Health Minister, Mr Agyeman-Manu answered that he find so many things wrong with it but he was in the market where he could not dictate to the supplier and his negotiation was all the best he could get from the market.”

These responses infuriated a lot of Ghanaians and they rightly asked for his sack from the president. The president notoriously refused to heed to the sack call and proceeded to give the minister leave to cool off. The president praised the minister for being able to withstand "noisemakers."

The Covid levy aside, the sanitary (borla) levy was not also able to serve its purpose. The 2021 budget promised several initiatives when done will ensure that we have a clean country for all to enjoy a quality life. Unfortunately, the capital city, Accra and several major cities faced serious sanitation challenges. Just last year IQAir, a Swiss technology company ranked Accra as the 10th most polluted city in Africa.

The then Minister of Sanitation, Madam Cecilia Abena Dapah was a subject of a $1 million hoarding scandal. Further investigations by the Office of the Special Prosecutor revealed that, "substantial sums of US$590,000 and GH¢2.73 million in cash was unearthed during a search conducted at the Abelemkpe residence of the Minister. Perhaps, our taxes are hoarded by those who impose them.

The president as usual wrote a letter clearing her of any wrong doing before the special prosecutor could end his investigations. He wrote, "I am confident, like you, that, at the end of the day, your integrity, whilst in office, will be fully established. I wish you the very best in all your endeavours." The invisible hand clearly frustrated the special prosecutor and he eventually gave up on the matter.

The needles financial sector clean up has also resulted in the bankruptcy of the government. The depositors are still calling for payments of their deposits and several workers were laid off as a consequence of the clean up. Clearly the financial sector clean up levy was used for other purposes other than what it was intended for.

The government must man up and restore its integrity. The proposed levies in the 2021 budget have not yielded the benefits intended for them and must be removed from the books.