A voice of reason has emerged from within the NPP on E levy – Felix Ofosu

At last, a voice of reason has emerged from within the NPP in the shape of Dr Mark Asibey Yeboah, Former Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee and Former MP for New Juabeng South.

He has called the bluff of the bungling Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government and asked them to go to the IMF in the wake of the collapse of the economy as he sees nothing wrong with it. He says the E-Levy is not the panacea to the huge financial hole we have been plunged in and urged the government to immediately place a call to the Washington Headquarters of the IMF for help.

Dr Asibey Yeboah knows that the pig-headed stance of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government in the matter of an IMF program is mere bluster and not founded on any sound or sensible economic analysis.

It is a desperate stand adopted only so the NDC cannot say the NPP has gone to the IMF and also to avoid making Bawumia cannon fodder for political opponents due to his cheap, haughty and false propaganda on the subject of IMF programs and the economy in general.

This government actually decided not to seek help in 2020 when the IMF offered assistance through the Debt Service Suspension Initiative(DSSI) under which our huge debt service obligations amounting to as much as 92.7% of tax revenue in 2021, would have been rescheduled to give government some space and badly needed funds to spend on critical sectors of the economy.

They failed to avail themselves of that offer so that the fiscal discipline the IMF would have demanded in return would not stand in the way of the very reckless election related expenditure they engaged in to win elections at all cost, which is at the heart of all the problems we are having with the economy.

Truth and wisdom have fallen from Dr Asibey Yeboah’s mouth but will Bawumia and his Economic Mismanagement Team listen and act accordingly?

While they dither, more damage is being done to the economy with rating agencies lining up to further downgrade our credit ratings.