Leader of the Alliance for Revolutionary Change and Movement for Change, Alan Kwadwo Kyeremanten has promised to reduce the number of taxes Ghanaians are burdened with by the NPP government when voted as president, come December 2024.
According to him, the key object is to ensure Ghana achieves the lowest tax rates in the ECOWAS subregion within a period of three years.
The former Trades and Industry Minister under the Akufo-Addo government bemoaned the lazy approach used by the current government in generating revenue for the state. During the official launch of the Great Transformational Plan at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel on Monday 24th of June, 2024, the presidential aspirant fingered the current government for deceitfully abolishing what it described at a time as ‘nuisance taxes’ only to introduce other rather burdensome taxes.
President Akufo-Addo’s government on the 2nd of March, 2017 during the presentation of the 2017 Budget Statement and Economic Policy announced the abolishing of some 11 taxes it considered a nuisance and further reviewed four other taxes. The government claimed, at the time, that these taxes negatively affected businesses in the country. The former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Attah argued that these taxes mostly affected businesses operating in the aviation, finance, and real estate industries.
However, post-COVID-19 economic conditions disruption in the global supply chain, and to a larger extent, economies meant the government had to look inward to generate the needed revenue. These taxes have negatively impacted livelihoods and have raised the cost of living amongst Ghanaians. Key among some of the new taxes that were introduced between 2020 and 2023 include the COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy, Financial Sector Recovery Levy, Energy Sector Levy, Electronic Transaction Levy, Minimum Chargeable Income Taxation, etc.
Mr. Alan Kyeremanten argues these taxes did nothing but further worsen the plight of ordinary Ghanaians and businesses. He attributed some companies leaving the shores of Ghana, in the not-too-distant past, to the rather unfavorable tax regimes introduced by the Akufo-Addo government.
Taxes play a key role in building a resilient economy and Mr Kyerematen suggests the elimination of some taxes including compounded calculation of VAT by consolidating the NHIA and GETFund levies with the VAT rate, abolishing the Special Import Levy of 2%, abolishing the COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy.
He further announced that his government would abolish the Ghana Health Service Disinfection Fee at the ports as well as abolish all taxes and other charges on the importation of spare parts within two years of the establishment of the Government of National Unity.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kyeremanten reveals his government would review and consolidate all statutory fees on imports imposed by Regulatory Agencies and redistribute the same under a new Cash Waterfall mechanism, designed to reduce the burden on importers.
This approach, he believes, would complement the other levers outlined in the Great Transformational Plan to build a robust macroeconomy.
Sefah-Danquah.