Parliament has approved the introduction of the COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy. The move will see taxes imposed on the supply of goods and services of imports to raise revenue to support COVID-19 expenditure and its related matters.

This conclusion was reached amid resistance from the Minority side of the House during a debate of the 2021 budget statement.

According to the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, the inability for the Health Ministry to justify the manner in which COVID-19 funds were expended at the height of the pandemic makes it difficult to appreciate the judiciousness to be exhibited in the new levy.

He further claimed that despite the suspension of the Financial Responsibility Act, government has gone a step further to spend lavishly under the guise of the novel coronavirus.

Mr Iddrisu described the bill as a regressive tax which “will impose further hardship on the Ghanaian.”

He said the bill did not expressly indicate clear-cut modalities in which the about ¢1.4 billion potential revenue is expected to be utilised.

But Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu fought these claims, saying it is too early in the day to demand accountability for a pandemic that is not yet over.

While acknowledging the need for a definite plan for the levy, Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu was, however, of a different view.

He explained that the evolving nature of issues surrounding the COVID-19 and its unstable expenditure will impede efforts to compartmentalize the uses of the new COVID-19 levy.

For this reason, he backed the motion to pass the COVID-19 Health Recovery Bill 2021.

Speaker Alban Bagbin however accepted the motion after it was passed in a voice vote.