New taxes will impose more hardship – Minority | Politics

Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu said the government’s decision to increase taxes in the 2021 budget in order to mobilize more revenue to support national development would only put Ghanaians in more difficulty.

He said the introduction of new taxes disguised as the COVID-19 health tax, increases in road tolls, the gambling tax, sanitation and pollution tax as well as upward adjustments of 1 % of the flat rate of the value added tax (VAT) and the law on the tax on the energy sector. (ESLA) would only worsen the plight of the people.

“Ghanaians will just have to prepare for increased hardship and increased suffering with this ‘blame and profit from the pandemic budget,’ he said, when he seconded the motion to approve the budget estimates.

Workers will be disappointed

“This means that we will see increases in oil prices with the new taxes that have been introduced.”

“Workers in Ghana will be the most disappointed as this is the first time since 2014 that a budget and policy has been presented to parliament without the negotiations on the national public sector minimum wage being concluded,” said Mr. Iddrisu.

“In addition, all the announced gains and the new taxes risk being eroded with the compensation,” he said.

Where are the value and the principles in politics?

National Democratic Congress (NDC) congressman Tamale South said what was intriguing was that when the government decided to introduce VAT in 1995 and 1998, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) kicked kicked against him and launched into a demonstration called “kumi preko”.

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“Where is the value and where is the principle in our policy? In 1995 and 1998 they saw neither the merit nor the value of VAT, but today they will depend on VAT. They owe the Ghanaian people an explanation, ”he said.

He said that having failed to keep Accra clean, the government headed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was proposing a “tax on sanitation and pollution”.

“We remind Ghanaians that with this’ sie yen preko ‘(bury us)’ budget, they would soon pay more for the prices at the pump.

No budgetary space

He also described as very worrying the swelling of the national debt stock to GH ¢ 291 billion, which represented 78 percent of GDP.

“This means the government has no fiscal space to undertake meaningful projects and it’s no wonder they say they will focus on completing ongoing projects or projects that have started.” , did he declare.

We were not against VAT

Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin said the NPP did not have “fierce opposition” to VAT in 1995 and 1998 when the government introduced new taxes.

“We were interested in the VAT rate at the time and the discussion was about how it would be used,” he said.

He stressed that it was widely known that the COVID-19 pandemic had devastated all the economies of the world.

However, Mr. Afenyo-Markin said that Ghana, through its leadership, has demonstrated its competence in dealing with the pandemic, thus making Ghana’s future bright.