The Akufo-Addo government’s maiden budget statement delivered by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, was met with jeers of “419 budget” from the Minority in Parliament, and the NDC MP for Ketu South, Fiifi Kwetey, has justified the minority’s description of the budget.
According to him, the New Patriotic Party government has ostensibly hoodwinked Ghanaians by ignoring some major promises, and instead fulfilling insignificant ones.
The 2017 budget heralded the abolition and review of some 12 key taxes in the aviation, finance and real estate industries, aimed at providing a friendly environment for businesses in the country.
Most notably, taxes on head porters ‘Kayayei’, and duties on imported spare parts were abolished to the glee of stakeholders.
Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, defended the budget saying it gave Ghanaians, a new sense of hope, as the components of the budget indicated government’s commitment to realizing all the promises it made to Ghanaians during the 2016 election campaign period.
Insignificant taxes removed, reviewed
But speaking on Citi TV’s Politicos, Mr. Kwetey maintained that, government had run away from its promises to remove or review more impactful taxes, like the energy sector levy, or the reduction in corporate income tax as promised ahead of the 2016 elections.
“There is something called running away from the camel and taking care of the insects. What it means is that, if there are big things you need to deal with, you can run away from the big things and do away with the insignificant one in order to deceive the people,” he explained.
“If you add them [taxes reviewed or abolished] in terms of value, they don’t even amount to the reduction of corporate income tax from 25 to 20 percent, let alone anywhere near the energy sector levy.”
Source: Citifmonline.com
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MATRIKI WU-FREE SHS 400 MILLION CEDIS NOT SUFFICIENT BY 800 MILLION CEDIS FREE SHS TO COST $1.2 BILLION (¢4.8 BILLION) A YEAR – KOFI BENTIL The Vice President of IMANI Ghana, Mr. Kofi Bentil has disclosed to GhOne TV that the free Senior High School Program will cost government 1.2 billion dollars a year,i.e 4.8 billion cedis for form one to form three. This postulation according to him stems out of a number of extensive researches that IMANI Ghana has done on the free SHS program. Although, he acknowledged that the free SHS program is doable, he also admitted that it will be an opportunity cost for Ghana. “The free SHS is doable but it means that Ghana would have to cut down on a number of things to roll out this program. But the question is what do we cut? Government must cancel some social intervention programs like the LEAP, GYEEDA, MASLOC among others depending on its priority areas to facilitate the free SHS. We have to also cut down on corruption, tax evasions and deal with all leakages in the system to fund the free SHS,” Mr. Bentil explained. Mr. Bentil recognized that Ghana has what it takes to get the free SHS program running but ruled out the use of the heritage fund and expressed excitement that the Finance Minister, Hon. Ken Ofori Atta has retreated on that consideration. However, he recommended the free SHS program should be progressive as lumping up all the other components together for a full start could pose a challenge. “I believe this program must be progressively free. For example, we can start with SHS 1 for the time being and graduate to the other levels but l don’t think it should cover boarding for now,” he added. In his opinion, if government does not pull up a tight plan to sustain the program it might get stalled along the way. Discussing the funding of the free SHS on ‘State of Affairs’ on GHOne TV, the Project Officer, Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas, Mr. Chideze Ezekiel also indicated the use of the heritage fund for the fee SHS policy was unlawful and defeats the purpose for its establishment. He also recommended citizen consultation or engagement on how the program will be funded so that the will of the people will not be subverted. “After all, the president said in his inaugural speech that we should be citizens not spectators. So we need to open the source of funding for this program to a national debate for a consensus to be reached for all stakeholders to be happy,” Mr. Chideze argued. He also advised government to graduate the free SHS program from one level to the other while giving serious consideration to access and quality. Both guest on the show, lauded the free SHS policy and urge government not to follow due process to make the program sustainable. Source: Enerst Lartey
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