ECOWAS Parliament has expressed worries over the dwindling levy of the sub-region.
The 0.5% imposed on goods from non-ECOWAS member states levy is meant to mobilize the funds required for the accomplishment of the missions of the parliament and other ECOWAS Institutions.
The sub-regional body revenue from the levy, which makes up about 80% of the Community’s budget revenue in the last three years has been fluctuating in the region of 30% of budgeted forecasts.
In his remark at the opening of the regional parliamentary seminar in Freetown, Sierra Leone, the Speaker, Mohamed Tunis, urged the assembly to look into the application of the protocol relating to the ECOWAS levy.
The Seminar has as theme, “Involvement of Members of the ECOWAS Parliament in Monitoring the application of the Protocol relating to the Community Levy”.
He said: “The theme to which we are invited today, as you have noted, hinges on the implementation of the Protocol relating to the Community Levy.
“In this regard, I recall that the Community Levy is a mechanism set up by ECOWAS Heads of State and Government and has been operational since 2003.
“Sadly, we are witnessing a low mobilization of the said resources which has been around 30% of forecasts over the past three years.
“In addition, the import receipts on which the Community Levy is based have also dwindled due to the impact of the health crisis on the global economy.
“Faced with such a difficulty and with the peril which threatens the implementation of community projects and programmes, as well as the execution of the activities of the Community institutions, the President of the ECOWAS Commission, on the occasion of our Second Extraordinary Session for year 2020, held via video conference, in July 2020, requested the assistance of the Parliament in the implementation of the ECOWAS Protocol on the Community Levy.
“This seminar therefore forms part of the continuation of Parliament’s efforts to make a significant contribution to the resolution of this priority challenge.
“It, therefore, offers all of us the opportunity to make relevant and innovative proposals and thus provide the full complement of the effectiveness of parliamentary action.
“We are therefore entreated during our discussions, to define an intervention framework for parliamentarians in the strategy of mobilizing the said resources and to find the means to achieve the effective application of the ECOWAS Protocol, because, the Community Levy is the very expression of the solidarity and responsibility of our respective Governments in the process of integration and in the achievement of the regional agenda”.
He said that ECOWAS ambition to build a prosperous and peaceful community space is irreversible, adding that the results obtained in the common market is very appreciable.
On covid-19 pandemic, he encourage citizens to get vaccinated massively, concluding that, “we either win together or perish together”.
