Tax on luxury vehicles poorly designed, the government must abolish it – Mahama

General News on Thursday, April 18, 2019

Source: citinewsroom.com

2019-04-18

The presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the opposition party, John Mahama, said his government would eliminate the luxury vehicle tax introduced by the Akufo-Addo government if it won the 2020 elections.

Describing the tax as ill-conceived, he said his introduction had overloaded the ordinary commercial driver whose vehicle owns the white registration plate.

He argued that the amount of revenue generated up to now is not even enough to maintain the tax.

S addressing some drivers during his road safety tour in Accra, Mahama urged them to exercise restraint because the NDC would not hesitate to abolish this policy.

"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 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 tax on luxury vehicles 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].

The figure was revealed when Parliament pbaded the four bills approving taxes presented by the government.