Businesses over burdened with taxes - Seth Terkper

Adnan Adams
Mohammed
A former finance
minister has criticized the government of some of its fiscal policies,
specifically pertaining to tax policies it has introduced.
Seth Terkper is
against the government for the numerous taxes it has levied since taking office
in 2017.
According the
former finance minister, Ghanaians are “paying more taxes than they did in
2016,” under John Mahama, a situation which deviates from what the governing
New Patriotic Party (NPP) promised, he said.
Vice President
Mahamudu Bawumia, for instance, slammed the then Mahama-led government for
“increasing taxes under the economic difficulties they created.”
An NPP government
will do differently, he posted on Twitter. The party also promised to scrap
“nuisance taxes” imposed by the NDC. But MrTerkper says this, however, is not
the case.
The NDC introduced
Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA) in January 2016 after the passage to help pay off
the loans in that had accrued in the power sector. These were among other few
taxes.
However, Ken
Ofori-Atta, in July this year, announced at least 15 new measures to address
the continuing energy sector challenges which included increasing the Energy
Sector Levy from 17 per cent to 21 per cent.
This, Mr Terkper
says is a deviation from the NPP’s stance against taxes when they were in
opposition.
The Minister also
maintained his party’s position that the Value Added Tax (VAT) has been
increased indirectly.
The government in
2018 maintained the VAT at 17 per cent but stripped two components, the GETFund
and the NHIL both 2.5 per cent each from it.
The two were made
straight levies, which producers and service providers say caused an increase
in cost.
The benchmark
value of import duties at all of the country’s ports was also slashed by up to
50 per cent this year.
However, Mr Terkper
says this hasn’t necessarily helped all traders but rather increased the cost
of transaction for some.
Also, the Personal
Income Tax has seen a rise from 25 per cent to 35 per cent, MrTerkper noted.
He said other
temporary taxes that the NDC introduced with the aim of scrapping after a while
have also been maintained by the government.
All these, the
former Minister said has increased cost, “the businesses are saying it,” he
noted, adding that Ghanaians loathe the current economic conditions.
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