The Minister of Finance during his appearance at a Town Hall Meeting at Wa, in The Upper West Region has stressed that , civil servants are absolutely right to demand for better conditions of service and increase in salaries however, the government is currently low on revenue.
The minister spoke at the town hall meeting on Monday this week. The town hall meeting is part of the government’s efforts to sensitize and educate Ghanaians on the need to accept the e-levy bill.
Current crisis in the country isn’t encouraging for almost all. With the civil sector hurdles, The University Teacher Association,Ghana(Utag) has been on strike for the past six weeks and just suspended the strike last Wednesday.
Hon.Ken Ofori-Atta while addressing the people present at the town hall meeting reckoned them to accept the e-levy as the government is broke and can’t pay for any expenditure like payment of civil servants.
“I look at teachers and civil servants, for example, and I will be the first to admit that the salaries are indecent; nobody will argue with that. So, yes, there is a legitimate demand for more and there is a legitimate reality that there is no money,” Ken Ofori-Atta shared.
“So, what do we do as a society? Then, you ask me to give you more salary; which is fine. Then, I say: ‘But it is your colleague civil servants who collect the money who are not collecting the money, so, how can you, responsible for collecting the money, not collect it and then tell me to give you the money. That will be another issue”, he added.
The minister further assured those present that, the government is very confident things would run smoothly when the e-levy bill is passed.
