COVID-19 freebies: You’ve defrauded Ghanaians – Isaac Adongo to Akufo-Addo

Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo has accused President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of duping Ghanaians and making them believe that the COVID-19 relief packages they enjoyed as part of measures put in place to help fight the coronavirus pandemic were free.

He further blamed the governing government for being insensitive to the plights of Ghanaians as 6 new taxes have been introduced.

According to the MP, the Akufo-Addo led government could have utilized the funds they received from donors; both locally and internationally judiciously to avert this sad situation of burdening Ghanaians.

His statement follows the introduction of 6 new taxes in the 2021 budget presented by the caretaker minister of finance, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.

These taxes include a COVID-19 Health Levy; 1% increase in National Health Insurance Levy and 1% increase in flat VAT rate as well as 30 pesewas increase in fuel prices to take care of excess power capacity charges [20 pesewas] and Sanitation and Pollution Levy [10%].

Speaking on CitiTv’s Eyewitness News Wednesday, March 17, 2021, the legislator opined that, “The smartest way to have dealt with this was to spend the monies that came to the government judiciously… You were engaged in populist spending of scarce resources and now after wasting the money, you are asking the people to pay. That is insensitive, in fact, that is the biggest deception and fraud on the Ghanaian people because we were made to believe that this economy could support those freebies because it was in the hands of those who knew how to manage the economy and because they knew how to manage the economy, they have built enough buffers to give us the freebies and people were excited now they tell you we are lying.”

“…at a time when a lot of people are at home and businesses are struggling to run, where do you think they will get the money? It means that the little that they will get which they could plough back to run their business, you are coming to collect it from them,” he added.