Minority Leader Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has bemoaned the numerous tax exemptions in the country.
According to him, this phenomenon must be curtailed as the needs every single cedi to salvage the current economic downturn.
Speaking to journalists last Thursday, the Minority leader noted that the Finance Committee in Parliament 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.
“So, you will notice that the finance committee has been very adamant in approving tax exemptions,” Dr. Ato Forson stated.
He emphasised that Ghana has made progress in terms of tax exemption.
“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 added that “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”.
