Member of Parliament (MP) for Banda, Ibrahim Ahmed has accused the government of prioritising tax waivers over the 2025 mini-budget.
In an interview with Channel One News, he emphasised the need to pass the 2025 mini-budget during the transition period.
According to the lawmaker, the government insists on parliament passing other bills such as the tax waiver bill. He explained that the minority side rejected the government’s quest since going ahead with it would implicate the incoming administration.
“We know very well that there are other tax waivers that the government wanted us to pass which we said the passage of the tax waivers will have much implication on the 2025 budget that we’ll pass. The government said we should do too many legislations. We said in these 2 weeks that we are staying, every legislation apart from the Vote on Account or Expenditure in Advance of Appropriation will have negative consequences on whoever is coming in 2025.
“We are in a transitional period and therefore we must pass the transitional budget. If you don’t have a budget, how can you have a programme? But the government side is saying we should continue with the approval of tax waivers, and we said no. Let us do the budget first. If you don’t have a budget, you cannot constitute any programme you are going to do,” he stated.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, earlier on Friday, December 20 adjourned proceedings to January 2, 2024, after Finance Minister Dr Mohammed Amin Adam failed to present the much-anticipated 2025 mini-budget before the close of the current session.
The mini-budget, a constitutional requirement intended to provide a fiscal outlook for the upcoming year, was expected to allocate funds for government expenditures in the first quarter of 2024 before the next administration assumes office.
Despite heightened expectations, the absence of the presentation forced Speaker Bagbin to adjourn proceedings.
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