Mark Aboagye, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) has expressed extreme excitement about Government of Ghana’s new proposed tax not passed in parliament, describing the taxes as anti-business.
According to the GNCCI CEO, the taxes should be completely withdrawn from the house for wider consultation. He further noted that adding more taxes to an already tax-burdened economy will be counter-productive to revenue generation.
“Extremely happy, extremely excited because those taxes are anti-business, and I have no doubt in my mind that if it’s passed it’s going to cause the collapse of a lot of businesses, and businesses are going to produce under capacity. If you look at the environment and already the taxes that we have, adding up was going to be harsh for businesses. So we’re happy that it’s not been passed.
“I hope that they’ll withdraw it and consult, engage the business people, find out the impact of the previous taxes on businesses and what possibly will be the impact of these taxes on businesses.”
Mark Aboagye
In the government’s quest to generate revenue, it is rather crushing the very industries that would provide the revenue, thus, should the tax measures be passed, “it’s going to cause unemployment”, Mr. Aboagye explained. He is also greatly disappointed in the failure of government to consult business stakeholders before introducing the new tax measures.
“We’re killing the micro; the basics for us to get all these macro policies to work. We’re weakening it. So for me, we’re happy it’s not being passed. They should withdraw it [and] consult the business community. The Chamber is ready to work with them, get them convinced that these taxes, what extent are they going to impact on your businesses, [also] get their input into the taxes.
“In fact in our input to the budget, the 2023 budget, we made it clear that we’re already suffering. There’re a lot of taxes now so we’re not expecting that there will be an additional tax or there will be an increment of existing taxes. We made it clear. So we were not consulted. We just saw it in the budget.”
Mark Aboagye
Yesterday, Thursday, March 23, 2023, in parliament, following an impasse between the Majority and Minority side of parliament concerning the course of proceedings, the government’s new tax measures were not passed.
Meanwhile, the tax measures form part of conditionalities for the country to receive the International Monetary Fund’s Executive Board approval for a $3billion bailout.
Economist, Professor Ebo Turkson, on his part thinks the new taxes when introduced will affect foreign investment, hence, urged government to move beyond using tax incentives to attract foreign investment.
Government advised to reverse its tax incentive measures to widen the tax net
Speaking concerning government’s introduction of new tax measures to ramp up tax revenue as a means of getting an IMF board approval for a $3 billion bailout, Prof. Turkson noted that, rather than introducing new taxes, the government could reverse its tax incentive measures instead to widen the tax net.
Explaining his suggestion, he said that most investors are the least enthused by the government’s tax incentives, as they are more concerned about the economic environment the government creates for them to run their business smoothly, adding that, when government successfully creates a conducive environment for businesses, foreign investment will troop in without the tax incentive.
“Ghana should move beyond using tax incentives to attract investment. When you ask those who bring in investments they’ll tell you that the least of the incentives is the tax incentives that we give them. They need a business environment that is conducive, so don’t give them any tax exemptions. Give them a business environment that is conducive for them to come and produce here and tax them, they’ll pay.”
Prof. Ebo Turkson
