GRi in Parliament 12 - 07 - 2002
Members of Parliament call for poverty-free World
Accra (Greater Accra) 12 July 2002- Parliament on Thursday passed six resolutions giving government the authority to adopt and implement six conventions that provides the legal framework for checking international terrorism. They are the International convention for the suppression of terrorist bombings, Ratification of the AU convention on the prevention and combating of terrorism and International Convention for the suppression of financing of terrorism.
The rest are the Protocol for the suppression of unlawful acts against the safety of fixed platforms located on the continental shelf, Convention for the suppression of unlawful acts against the safety of Maritime Navigation and the International Convention for the physical protection of nuclear material.
The House also passed resolutions for the conduct of developing and producing the Tano Oil Fields, Offshore Ghana and the Petroleum Exploration and Production operations in Blocks Offshore Deepwater Keta Basin. The Keta project would be undertaken by The Ghana National Petroluem Corporation (GNPC), Devon Energy (Ghana) Limited and Encana International (Ghana) Limited.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 12 July 2002-A bill that seeks to abolish the special tax imposed on some selected commodities was taken through the second reading in Parliament on Thursday. The Customs, Excise (Duties and Other Taxes) (Amendment) bill if passed would amend the Customs, Excise (Duties and other taxes) Act 2001 (Act 594).
According to report of the Finance Committee, the amendment seeks to bring Ghana's tariffs structure in harmony with that of ECOWAS countries. It said the application of the special tax is inconsistent and at cross purpose with the objects of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). "Indeed, Ghana stands to suffer retaliatory fiscal measures from her trading countries if this tax-type, which is discriminatory in nature, is retained."
According to the report, Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance, allayed the fears of the public on dumping saying government has several mechanisms to fight dumping of inferior goods on the Ghanaian market. "Government reserves the right to impose non-tariff methods and regulations to fight dumping." The Committee called for co-operation between government and private sector agencies to identify dumping practices and take steps to stop them.
In another development, the House has taken the Taxpayer Identification Numbering System (TINS) Bill through the second reading without dissent. The bill, if passed would provide a legal framework to the implementation of the TINS.
Mr Osafo-Maafo, who moved the motion, said the project, which started in 1997 aims at tracking the payment of taxes at every stage of production. He said certain unscrupulous manufacturing firms report false information on their activities to under declare their turnover. Members asked that all eligible tax payers should be brought on board since the poor worker has remained the tax bearer all this while.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 12 July 2002- Members of Parliament on Thursday called on world leaders to find solution to incidence of poverty, especially in Africa. They said the reduction alleviation or the elimination of poverty is a social debt that governments owe their people.
Alhaji Abdullah Salifu, Chairman of the Parliamentary Caucus on Population and Development said this in a statement to mark the World Population Day. He said: "Poverty, population and development are complex and inter-related and therefore, no development can take place until we find a solution to it. "The theme for the celebration was: "Poverty, Population and Development".
Alhaji Salifu said 22 out of the 25 poorest countries in the world were in Africa, while out of the estimated 1.2 billion people in the world, who survive on less than one dollar a day, 320 million of them live in sub-Saharan Africa.
He said poverty in Africa was so chronic that it has become a catalyst for violent conflicts, displacement of large populations, intensification of environmental degradation and the spread of diseases, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
"Poverty does not only deny many people their civil and political rights, it also hampers their participation on cultural basis where frequently poor people are rejected by society, resulting in social exclusion."
Alhaji Salifu, who is also the MP for Tolon, noted that in certain parts of the world, people living in extreme poverty were habitually excluded from political processes, denied access to information, fair legal treatment and deprived of normal benefits of citizenship. He said the most vulnerable groups who suffer the unfair treatment were women, children, a considerable portion of young adults, elderly persons, single-parented families, refugees and asylum seekers.
According to him parliamentarians could help alleviate poverty by increasing public understanding of the mutual dependence, and the need for international co-operation in development. There should be refocusing on national and international development efforts on the elimination of poverty and encouraging economic and social policies that would benefit the poor.
"Establish closer co-operation between NGOs and international organisations to promote action for the elimination of poverty, and to help mobilise the political will to achieve national development targets and monitoring poverty reduction programmes to ensure that it was really the poor who derive full benefits from such programmes,” he said.
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