Accra, Parliament has passed the fees (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, 2022, to provide for an annual adjustment of fees being charged by public institutions.
It is expected that the Fees and Charges Act 2022 would replace the Fees and Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2018 (Act 983), which gave the Finance Minister the power to determine fees and charges under an enactment.
When assented to by the President, the new Act would review existing fees and impose new ones in line with prevailing economic conditions in the country.
The Bill, according to government officials’ forms part of revenue mobilisation measures outlined in the 2022 budget and would also give legal backing to the request for a 15 per cent upward adjustment of fees by public institutions.
Mrs Abena Osei Asare, Deputy Finance Minister, at the second reading of the Bill, on the floor of Parliament noted that the increments would ensure the cost of fees keeps up with trends in pricing.
Meanwhile, the Finance Committee of Parliament’s report states that several government agencies failed to lodge revenues collected in gross contravention of Section 46 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).
“Again, some institutions also collect revenues on the table or over the counter after which it is lodged into their operational accounts and disbursed directly in contravention of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016.
“The Committee noted with concern that the practice does not give the Minister of Finance a complete or comprehensive view of the total revenue generated by all state agencies in each fiscal year,” the report said.
The report by the Committee, therefore, recommended that the Ministry of Finance should take immediate steps to ensure that all institutions captured in the Second Schedule of the Bill collect their revenues through a designated commercial bank or through the Ghana.gov platform from which the funds collected are transferred in gross into the respective holding accounts at Bank of Ghana.
Mr Kwaku Kwarteng, the Chairman of the Finance Committee, explained this during the third reading of the motion.
Source: Ghana News Agency
