NDC Will Abolish Tax on Luxury Vehicles – John Mahama

General News on Friday, April 19th, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-04-19

The presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, announced on Thursday that he would abolish the luxury vehicle tax introduced by the government to tax motor vehicles of greater capacity.

Addressing the leaders and drivers of the GPRTU station at the Neoplan station in Accra in Twi dialect, Mahama said the new tax did not in itself generate so much revenue for the government and wondered why it was not would not delete it.

"It is not so long ago, the government introduced the tax on luxury vehicles. This tax was not well thought out before its deployment. They should have exempted all commercial vehicles. There are commercial vehicles without yellow plates, but rather white plates that carry commercial goods. When they exceed three liters, they must pay this luxury tax. This has resulted in untold hardship for some drivers, especially those who work for businesses and others. "

"Recently, I heard that the government could only raise 25 million GHC from the luxury tax, if that were the case it should then abolish it. If they do not do it, the NDC government will abolish it when we come to power, "he added.

The tax applies to all vehicles, including commercial vehicles, agricultural tractors, collection vehicles, among others.

The government has collected about 21.3 million GH ¢ in taxes from the use of vehicles with a displacement of more than 2.9 liters between August and December, according to provisional fiscal data on public finances from last year.

This amount is lower by GH ¢ 82.7 million, ie 79.52% below the € 104 million expected for this period. Forecasts were included in the mid-year budget review of 2018.

The police department has taken legal action to seek an injunction to stop a planned protest against the luxury vehicle tax scheduled for March 7.

The government plans to withdraw at least 300 million cedis from the luxury vehicle tax by the end of 2019.
The tax, which is part of the new policy measures introduced during the mid-year budget review, is expected to fill the revenue gap for the first half of the year. [2018].

Mr. Mahama explained that many people complaining about the impact of the tax on their activities, especially commercial drivers and small business owners, use the van. The next administration of the NDC will remove the tax if the government does not abolish it until 2020.

The head of the NDC was in the pre-Easter era among your selected heavyweight fleets to advocate for an accident-free Easter holiday, advising and encouraging drivers to take greater responsibility for the arrival in full safety of their pbadengers and themselves at their destination.

At the Kaneshie truck park, President Mahama promised local GPRTU leaders that his government would work with them to build a modern bus terminal in Kaneshie.

While noting that various factors may explain the road accidents, he stressed the need for the GPRTU to continue its safe driving campaigns in order to contribute to the reduction of road accidents.