Speaking on the floor of Parliament, the MP blasted the Majority in Parliament for complaining about the Covid-19 levy.
According to him, the government does not do ‘sika gari’, to wit government does not conjure money.To this end, he stressed that Ghanaians will continue to pay for the COVID-19 levy after enjoying free water and free electricity government introduced during the Coronavirus pandemic.
“Mr. Speaker, I want to ask them. When we went on lockdown and they were still receiving their salaries, when we went on lockdown and they enjoyed free electricity, when we went on lockdown and they enjoyed free water, where did they expect the government to get the money to pay for this?“
It was that money that we used to pay. And today we are asking you to pay it back and you are complaining that how come you gave it to me for free and we have to pay for it.
Who do you want to pay for it?“Because they heard free, they thought that government was Prof. Diego so he would just conjure and ‘sika gari’ will come. Government doesn’t do sika gari. Government has to take the money from you and I to run this economy and that’s what we are doing,” Carlos Kingsley Ahenkorah said in his argument.
In the past year, there have been several calls for government to stop charging COVID-19 levy.Unfortunately, those calls fell on deaf ears as there was no mention of plans to abolish the levy in the 2024 Budget and Economic Statement laid before Parliament by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.
