Finance Minister Seth Terkper has revealed that government will lose about GHS1billion if some new taxes introduced are scrapped.
The minister who dispelled accusations that he tax-happy indicated that the taxes imposed by government were necessary to streamline the tax base to correspond with global business changes.
He explained that government will remove some of the taxes gradually from 2017 but was quick to add that “GHS1 billion will be lost if we remove the new taxes. Currently the largest exemption we have is on imports”.
He explained on Monday, October 31 that: “Ghana has one of the most liberal tax laws. We have never taxed the Stock Exchange. We have one of the most liberal incentive regimes. We had to review the tax regime to respond to current trends. We just do not love taxing”.
He, however, cautioned that too many tax exemptions will not inure to the benefit of the country.
For him, the fact that some African countries are giving tax exemption does not mean Ghana must do same as different dynamics govern different economies. “We should be careful in exempting too many taxes when it doesn't benefit the nation. Nigeria, for instance, exports over two million barrels of oil daily and so the dynamics are different from country to country,” he said in an interview on Starr FM.
Source: Classfmonline
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Yes we can lose that 1billion but we can also gain 100 billion through increased production, increased employment and a massive growth in GDP.This is what the NDC cannot see. There is nowhere on this earth where a country has taxed its way into prosperity, You cannot develop an economy and provide jobs with taxation. You can only increase production, provide jobs increase the GDP and hence the national cake by strategically reducing taxes and encouraging production. This is the difference between the philosophy of the NPP and that of the NDC.
Is this Seth Terpkor an ediotic full still in charge of Ghana finances ; I wonder !!!!!!!; this guy does not understand why tax exemptions are given and why the NPP wishes to scrap some of these irrelevant taxes that is impeding the industrial growth of the economy ;tax exemtions are used to stimulate the economy ; it is just like QE or printing money ; it is used as a tool to encourage businesses to employ more people ; tax exemptions are not obligatory on an economy if you are managing the macro economic variables in the economy and not embarking on irrelevant infrascture projects besides it is better than borrowing which has a cost ; Seth Terpkor is speaking in the context of the conditions imposed by the IMF program which requires the reduction of the defcit by using taxation to control spending whilst at the same time Jon Mahama uses awarding contracts through sole contracts to his family members which does not require any cost or benefit scrutiny ; there is also the dishonest inflation of contracts by this governments which means there are serious leakages funds ending up in the pockets of Jon Mahama families and NDC cronies which is diverted into off shore accounts besides what a thing to say 'we do not love taxing' ; this shows how naive this full Seth Terpkpor is ; it is not merely collecting taxes which is the issue ; the issue is the administrative mechanism to collect taxes and the releveant areas to collect these taxes ; for example why are people with these big houses at east legon not subjected to some strealine taxation based on the value of these properties because the amount of percentage of investment in bricks and motar at east legon if properly taxed will wipe out some percentage of the deficit that Seth Terpkor requires to comply with the IMMF conditions .