Parliament approves deletion of the tax on luxury vehicles

Parliament pbaded the luxury vehicle tax bill (repeal), aimed at eliminating taxes on luxury vehicles introduced by the government last year.

This decision gives effect to one of the measures announced Monday by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta during the semi-annual review.

In his 2018 presentation to Parliament in 2018, the Minister of Finance introduced the tax that required owners of luxury vehicles with a cubic capacity of 3 liters or more to pay an annual tax on their vehicles.

However, the implementation has been hailed by a series of demonstrations from owners and dealers of vehicles with a cubic capacity of 3.0 and up.

Earlier this week, Ofori-Atta told parliament that the government "took note of suggestions from the general public on the implementation of this tax" and proposed its withdrawal only one year after its entry into force.

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JoyNews' parliamentary correspondent, Kwesi Parker-Wilson, reported Thursday that before approval, the minority said the bill lacked credibility.

The House then approved, by majority vote, the repeal of the bill, despite the decision of the minority to abstain, the journalist added.

Previously, the House pbaded the Energy Sector Tax (ESLA) Amendment Bill, which allowed the government to increase taxes on certain fuels.

This means that the liter of gasoline and diesel will increase by 20 GHp while a kilogram of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will also increase by 8 GHp. This means that a gallon of gasoline and diesel will now increase by an additional 90 GHp.

In 2017, the government released the Bond of the Energy Levies Act (ESLA), which raised almost 6 billion GHG on the ESLA levies to pay debts inherited from the previous administration of the NDC.

The proceeds of the bonds were used to liquidate about 60% of the debts inherited from the energy sector.

The increase, according to the finance minister, "will allow the government to issue additional bonds to repay our debt obligations of the energy sector".