Parliament yesterday reacted swiftly to President Kufuor's proposed tax reprieves and passed into law two bills intended to ameliorate the effects of rising global commodity prices. The Presidential initiatives were announced in Thursday's broadcast to the nation aimed at mitigating the effects of the global crisis on the domestic economy and the broad masses of the people and Parliament's approval provided the legal basis for their immediate implementation. The specific enactments were the Customs and Excise (Duties and other Taxes) Amendment Bill and the Customs and Excise (Petroleum Taxes and Petroleum Related Levies) Amendment Bill. The principal legislation was Act 685, which was amended to reduce taxes on a number of petroleum products, including gas oil, kerosene, marine gas oil and premix fuel. Specified excise duty on gas oil was reduced from 9.1Gp to 6.2Gp; duty on kerosene from 6.4875Gp to 4.5375Gp; duty on marine gas oil from 6.4945Gp to 3.9945Gp, while the current duty of 5.1456Gp on premix fuel is being completely removed. In addition, certain percentages of import duty were removed on staple food items. They are rice, 20 per cent; wheat, 10 per cent; vegetable oil, 20 per cent, and yellow maize for poultry, 20 per cent. Before the passage of the bill, members wanted to know how the changes in the taxes would impact on prevailing prices on the market but the Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, informed the House that most of those items were kept in bonded warehouses and duties were paid on them when they were being moved from those warehouses to the market. He added that with the changes in the duty rate, it would immediately affect the prices of the next batch of those items going onto the market for sale. Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ms Christine Churcher, made a statement on the floor of the House to commemorate African Union Day which falls on May 25, 2008. According to her, since the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to the African Union (AU) was concluded after complex negotiations in July 2000, the union had made great strides to restructure the social and economic order of the continent. "Mr Speaker, first and foremost the move from a secretariat to a commission is one of the major innovations of the AU Constitutive Act embodying the will to make a qualitative jump towards greater integration," she said. Commenting on the theme for this year's celebration, “Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on Water and Sanitation", Ms Churcher said the objective of the theme was for the continent to address persisting and emerging social issues such as access to potable water, sanitation and health care in the context of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Foreign Affairs appealed to member nations of the AU to expedite action on policies and strategies which had been elaborated and implemented by regional economic communities and other partners in the health sector. She also called on the leaders of the continent to remain committed to the road map of the continent to ensure the promotion of peace, good governance, hard work and human rights. Contributing to the statement, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bole Bamboi, Mr John Mahama, expressed grave concern over what he termed the senseless killings of African immigrants working in the Republic of South Africa. Source: Daily Graphic