A former Finance Minister Seth Terkper has said the Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA) that was introduced by the Mahama administration is currently helping President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo to pay debts in the energy sector.
He said the President failed to admit in his state of the nation address that the ESLA bas been beneficial to his government because of the earlier criticisms against it by Mr Akufo-Addo.
In a tweet after the President’s address on Tuesday March 9, Mr Terkper said “ESLA: Easy to take credit, yet very difficult to admit that ESLA flows used to pay banking sector bailout costs (especially, to Depositors), energy arrears (incl arrears to IPPs, BDCs etc), road arrears (contractors). ESLA used to restructure Bank debt without job loss in 2016.”
He added “Is it difficult to admit use of ESLA because it was called “nuisance” tax; not scrapped but retained; rate increased, not lowered; and ESLA extended to 10+ yrs & not lapse in 3-to-5 yrs. Give credit where due”
Source: 3news
