The Minority in Parliament has accused the government of giving tax waivers worth 7 billion Ghana Cedis to their trade industry allies.
Yussif Sulemana, Ranking Member of the Trade and Industry Committee, said this at a press conference on Wednesday, December 12, 2023.
He provided notice that the Minority will vigorously oppose any attempt to impose additional regressive taxes on Ghanaians if the administration does not repeal these outrageous tax breaks.
The Minority’s charges stem from a current 5 billion Ghana Cedis tax waiver request before the Finance Committee, disguised as incentive packages for the One District One Factory (1D1F) scheme.
He said “The 2024 budget alone is imposing taxes to the tune of GHS11 billion. The unfortunate thing is that while we are taxing the poor Ghanaians to raise this revenue, we are also at the same time granting tax waivers to friends and family members. For instance, we have about GHS5.5 billion tax exemptions waiting at the finance committee.
“We have also been reliably informed, and we are speaking because we have seen documents that suggest that they’re bringing another GHS7 billion tax waiver request to parliament. Now, if you put the two together, we are talking about GHS12.5 billion tax exemptions.”
“Here you are wanting to grant GHS12.5 billion to your friends and family members in the name of tax exemptions under 1D1F. At the same time, you are imposing taxes to the tune of GHS11 billion. Can you juxtapose the two.
“We think that it doesn’t make sense to us, and so we are saying that the tax bill that they are going to introduce in this particular budget will face some stiff opposition. We will not sit down and allow them to impose taxes on our people,” he added.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
