Fees, charges by MDAs go up
Fees and charges for services by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) are expected to go up following the coming into force of the Fees and Charges (Amendment) Instrument, 2013 (LI 2206).
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The instrument, which was laid before Parliament on July 19, 2013 and referred to the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation for consideration and report, was approved by the House yesterday.
Fifty agencies under 20 ministries and the National Identification Authority have been authorised by the instrument to review their fees and charges upwards.
They include the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, which took a false start to charge the new fees even before the instrument came into effect and was forced to stop.
But with the coming into force of the instrument, the hospital will now have the power to resume charging the new fees.
The Chairman of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee, Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, moved the motion for the adoption of the report of the committee and was seconded by the Ranking Member of the committee, Mr Cletus Apul Avoka.
Presenting the report of the committee, Mr Amoah said in line with Regulation 20 of the Financial Administration Regulation, 2004 (LI 1802), “All MDAs responsible for collecting various types of fees and charges are required on an annual basis to review the administrative efficiency of collection, the accuracy of past estimates and relevance of rates, fees and charges to the current conditions and submit proposals through the appropriate sector minister to Parliament for approval,”
Some of the fees and charges have been increased over 100 per cent against the average cumulative inflation of 12.8 per cent between 2008 and 2012 when most of the fees were last reviewed.
Mr Amoah said the committee received a petition from the Ghana Chamber of Mines expressing grave concern over the revised ground rent for mining concessions as contained in the instrument.
The petition indicated that the ground rent had been increased from the current 50Gp per kilometre square to GHC36.50 per acre, which translates into an upward review of about 1,800,000 per cent.
But Mr Amoah said the committee was informed that the adjustment had been influenced by increases in the prices of inputs in rendering services, adding, “In effect, the fees and charges collected by MDAs for the delivery of services require regular adjustments in view of current economic developments.”
The committee advised MDAs to review their fees and charges on an annual basis and in moderate terms, as provided in the Financial Administration Regulation, 2004 to prevent the unbearable burden placed on users of those services as a result of the astronomical increase in fees and charges due to the cumulative effect of inflation over a long period of time.
Seconding the motion, Mr Avoka reminded MDAs of the fact that it was only Parliament that had power to increase fees and charges and warned that MDAs which usurped the power of Parliament to impose new fees and increased existing ones would be sanctioned.