The Vice President of Ghana, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says in fulfillment of its campaign promise to move the economy from a focus on taxation to focus on production, the NPP-Government has so far reduced or abolished 18 separate taxes and levies.
This was despite the revenue challenges it inherited when the NPP-Government came into office.
According to him, although the government was aware the decision could worsen Ghana’s economic challenges, it was of the conviction that the move will spare growth in the medium to long term.
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He said this while delivering ‘The state of the Economy’ at the National TESCON Conference 2022 on Thursday, April 7, 2022.
“We were aware that our decision to reduce taxes could worsen our revenue challenges in the short term but we were of the firm conviction that this would spare growth and increase tax revenues in the medium to long term,” he said.
Despite abolishing these taxes, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia said revenue collection has increased by 25 per cent annually since 2017, saying beyond these measures, government focused on taxation to production.
However, he admitted that as part of measures to get the economy back on track when the government had challenges and to improve domestic revenue mobilization and to improve efficiency, the government increased a number of taxes.
These include the extension of the national fiscal stabilisation levy, and the special imports levy from 2020 to 2024, imposed initially a luxury vehicle levy which was later abolished, increased the National Health Insurance levy from 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent, introduced a sanitation pollution levy of 10 pesewas on the price of a litre of fuel, a financial sector cleanup levy of 5 percent and recently the introduction of the E-Levy of 1.5 per cent on financial transactions.
Ghana| Atinkaonline.com| Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori