News:
July 5, 2024
The Majority in Parliament has expressed disappointment in the Minority for standing in the way of government, as it makes efforts to ensure Ghanaians have fair pricing of cement in the country.
Majority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo Markin at a press conference on Thursday, July 4, 2024, expressed worry over the attitude of some members of the Minority, when government is taking steps to ensure Ghanaians do not experience constant price increase in cement produce.
According to him, more worrying is the fact that the NDC Minority keeps calling on government to leave up to expectation by halting the arbitrary increase in cement products in the country, and yet their attitude in parliament towards that effort speaks otherwise.
“We are disappointed at the manner in which the minority went about the Legislative Instrument (LI) which was laid two days ago in Parliament”, he stated.
The Majority Leader asserts that the main objective of the L.I as contained in the paper presented is to promote competition within the cement industry, but not to regulate pricing of cement; adding that government is not seeking to re-introduce price control as if we are a communist government.
He said this government believes in free market enterprise, but it should be regulated and checked. ‘When the matter came up for the laying of the L.I. the Minority raised a strong objection to the effect that we should subject the L.I. to a pre-laying, which suggestion we agreed. It was made and referral was made to the Subsidiary Legislation of Parliament, it is headed by Dr. Dominic Ayeni after their deliberation they came up with a document, a report signed by the chair of the committee”.
The content said if the sector Minister would take into consideration all the amendments, then they are not opposed to the L.I. The Minister incorporated every single amendment proposed by the committee into the new L.I before same was laid. In other words, the old L.I. was changed so the Minority amendment was factored into the new L I.
“So how come the next day some members of the Minority came attacking government? They are the same people complaining about cost of leaving, cost of pricing of food stuffs and production, and government is taking steps to protect the consumer, the ordinary user of cement in Ghanaian.”
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com