National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has asked critics to stop blaming the Minority for staging a walk-out amid the passage of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) Bill.
Defending the Minority’s action in an interview on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen show, Mr Gyamfi said the Minority took that firm decision in the interest of Ghanaians as they could not have been part of an exercise that will hurt citizens.
He said some people were of the view that the walkout should have come after the first vote and others also thought the walkout was meaningless because the numbers were not going to favour the Minority.
To him, people who are bent on attacking and blaming the NDC because of the walkout should put a stop to it.
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“There are some people on social media blaming the NDC for walking out. We took that decision for the betterment of Ghanaians because we didn’t want to jeopardise our future which is why we are now in court for interpretation.
“So those blaming us for what happened in parliament should stop because we have not laid any E-levy bill in parliament and the NDC is not responsible for taking taxes from the people and so they should rather laud us for taking that bold decision and not blame us,” he said.
The Minority had complained that it had been taken by surprise by the consideration of the levy given that it was not listed in Parliament’s business statement for the week.
The Bill, which was considered under a certificate of urgency, was adopted at a reduced rate of 1.5% from the proposed 1.75%.
The Minority MPs had walked out of Parliament before the second reading of the Bill after debating it.