Parliament repeals National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy Act

Page 12, Sat Jan 28, 2012
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
PARLIAMENT yesterday repealed the National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy Act (Act 785), as amended in Act 812, through the passage of the National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy (Repeal) Bill, 2011.
The National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy (Repeal) Bill, 2011 was presented and read for the first time in Parliament on December 16, 2011 and referred to the Finance Committee for consideration and report.
The National Fiscal Stabilisation Act, 2009 (Act 785) was introduced in the second half of 2009 to raise funds for national development.
Even though it was initially to last for 18 months, the government extended the duration for an additional year by way of an amendment (Act 812) with a pledge to discontinue the levy.
Meanwhile, the House also passed the Customs and Excise (Duties and other taxes) (Amendment) Bill, 2011 to reduce the environmental excise tax imposed on plastic packaging materials from 20 per cent to 15 per cent.
The Finance Committee of the House, which dealt with the bill, observed that pharmaceutical and agricultural products were exempted from the ambit of the environmental excise tax.
It also noted that the reduction in the environmental excise duty on plastic packaging materials from 20 per cent to 15 per cent would help decrease the input cost for the production of packaged products.
Meanwhile, the President is expected to deliver the State of the Nation Address in Parliament in the middle of next month.
The Majority Leader, Mr Cletus Avoka, who informed the House when he presented the business statement for next week, however, could not give the exact date when the President was expected to deliver the address.
He stated that the Business Committee had taken note of the fact that the House might possibly rise on March 23, 2012 to enable MPs to support the forthcoming voters registration exercise to be carried out by the Electoral Commission (EC), aside the statutory commitment at the international level scheduled for the fourth week in March 2012.
Mr Avoka said having regard to those issues, the Business Committee proposed that extended sittings be introduced by the third week of February to enable the House to expeditiously dispose of its agenda before rising.
But his announcement for the rising of the House on March 23 did not go down well with the MPs who suggested that the House should rather rise earlier, since they would want to be in their constituencies for some days before the starting of the registration exercise on March 24, 2012.
The suggestion, which was made by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Old Tafo, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, was supported by all the MPs who contributed to the ensuing discussions on the matter.
They called on the leadership of the House to engage the EC to see if it could amend its scheduled date for the commencement of the voters registratio