EDITORIAL (The Daily Searchlight, Monday, 9th May, 2022)
A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has condemned calculated attempts by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to incite Ghanaians against the implementation of the Electronic Transaction Levy (e-levy) to make the government unpopular.
Mr. Yaw Dabie Mensah Appiah, a former organiser of the NPP in the former Brong-Ahafo region therefore urged Ghanaians to ignore the NDC, saying the e-levy had enormous economic benefits that would help to push the development of the nation to the next level.
He said the Act for the implementation of the e-levy went through parliamentary process, approval and subsequent passage, an indication that the nation required the levy to generate the needed revenue to facilitate accelerated economic growth and national development.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Odumase in the Sunyani West Municipality, Mr. Appiah said he was highly disappointed at the NDC in view of the current economic situation and financial stress the country was going through.
Even though the Daily Searchlight in principle opposes the imposition of additional taxation on Ghanaians, we believe that we should also caution Ghanaians to be careful against being taken in by objections from the opposition NDC. We believe that this caution is necessary, because that political organization often objects to policies not on the basis of efficacy, but because it is just another opportunity to oppose anything proposed by government. It does not matter to the NDC whether the policy is good or bad, if only it would serve as another opportunity to get Ghanaians riled up against the government.
Two classic examples illustrate this fact. The NDC, for instance, is on record to have opposed the National Health Insurance Policy, the single biggest health intervention on the continent of Africa and indeed the world. This is also in spite of the fact that the NDC, before the Kufuor Administration assumed office, practiced the ‘cash and carry’ health system, which led to many unnecessary deaths and suffering at health facilities across Ghana. Thankfully, the then government managed to push through the Health Insurance Policy, which today benefits many.
Another important policy that the NDC opposed, was the policy to make the position of MMDCEs elective. The Daily Searchlight continues to advocate that that would have been the single most important political initiative in Ghana since the passage of the 1992 Constitution. Unfortunately, the NDC managed to have that policy withdrawn, even though it would have led to unprecedented social and economic growth at the local level. By this exercise, NDC managed to throw Ghana off a path of progress.
The two examples cited above indicate clearly that Ghanaians have a duty to study each policy carefully, to make a decision for themselves, without being hoodwinked by opposition from the NDC. That party often does not mean well for Ghanaians, and Ghanaians would be well-advised to take note of this fact.
(This article was first published in the column EDITORIAL of the Daily Searchlight of 09/05/2022. The Daily Searchlight appears on the newsstands of Ghana every working day and for sale online twenty-four hours a day all day throughout the world on www.ghananewsstand.com).
