Struggling economy can’t absorb tertiary fees …as Parliament votes against motion

Parliament has voted against a motion filed by lawmaker for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, requesting government to absorb fees of public tertiary students and to extend support to private universities for the 2020/2021 academic year, as part of COVID-19 relief programmes.

During debate on the proposal, some members in the majority group stressed that government has done and continues to do a lot as regards COVID-19 relief – making reference to government absorbing the electricity and water bills of citizens over a period. Members also raised concerns about financial implications of the request for absorption of tertiary fees on the economy.

The MP for Effutu Constituency – who is also Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, indicated that considering COVID-19 effects on countries’ economies, including that of Ghana, if the request passes government may have to impose some tax to support the cost.

“It is my considered view that an invitation such as we find may lead to the imposition of taxation if government is supposed to embrace what is being required of it to do,” he said.

Former Deputy Minister of Finance and MP for Obuase West, Kwaku Kwarteng, argued that the initiative falls outside the plans of government’s finances; especially at a time that COVID-19 has imposed some constraints on the public purse.

“In order that we understand some of the financial provisions in the constitution, we ought to understand how our financial arrangement works. This motion is inviting the House to pass a resolution that asks government to take money from the Consolidated Fund and use it to pay for those expenditures which the school fees of the students would have paid.

“There have been references to the COVID-19 alleviation measures: Those measures and the associated expenditures came to this House, and this House gave approval for expenditures in respect of those expenditure lines.

“Government does not have the power to make expenditures for which provisions have not been made and for which approval is not given. We cannot pass a resolution approving measures and associated expenditures, and then turn round and ask the executive to do something else,” he noted.

He added: “There is another illegality associated with this motion. As we speak, the expenditures of government are governed by the expenditures in advance of appropriation that this House passed last November; and outside that, government is not able to spend.

“If you go to the expenditure in advance of appropriation we approved under Article 180 of the constitution, there is no room for the fiscal impact this motion is seeking to do. So, if this motion were to pass and government should seek to do what Parliament is requesting, the only option is for government to find money – maybe, borrow outside the approved sources – and use that to finance this unplanned expenditure.”

Members of the NDC caucus have however expressed disappointment at the stance of their colleagues on the other side of the House regarding the matter; maintaining that the request was prudent in the fight against COVID-19, considering its effects on household incomes over the last year.

Parliament, on October 30, 2020, approved the Finance Ministry’s request to spend an amount of GH¢27.4billion from the Consolidated Fund to finance government operations for the first quarter of the 2021 financial year.

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