Adnan Adams Mohammed
The Finance Committee in Parliament is alarmed with the numerous tax exemptions agreements in the country.
According to the immediate past ranking member of the Finance Committee, the country amidst its current economic challenges need every single Cedi in order to salvage the economy.
The legislator shared that the committee has been resolute in approving tax exemptions as they are becoming too much.
“Yes we have done a lot of work on the tax waivers. We believe that tax exemptions are becoming too much and particularly at a time like this that the country needs every cedi to save our economy you cannot continue granting tax exemptions”, Cassiel Ato Forson, the Minority leader in Parliament told journalist, last week.
“So, you will notice that the finance committee has been very adamant in approving tax exemptions.”
He emphasised that Ghana has made progress in terms of tax exemption.
The Minority leader said: “We worked with the ministry and eventually we led it to get the tax exemption bill passed. So, we have a tax exemption regime in place as a country for the first time as we speak.
“In terms of the savings that the finance committee has led parliament to save in terms of tax exemption if you quantify it with our report, you will notice that we have made huge progress as a country in terms of tax exemption.”
The Majority leader Osei-Kyei-Mensah Bonsu has however acceded to the Minority leader’s comments stressing that the tax waivers were not helping the country’s situation.
“A lot of people were also taking advantage of that regime to seek tax waivers that were not really helping the country.
“Having said that, this is the reason why we have introduced this tax exemption Act. So, from now on it is going to be the guiding principle,” the Majority leader stated.
He further indicated “the difficulty now is we are somehow standing, imports that were occasioned especially those of the 1D1F they are here the imports have arrived and it was predicated on the old regime.
“Now, if you want to benchmark on the new law it becomes a difficulty”.
