Felix Kwakye Ofosu is an aide to former President John Dramani Mahama
The 2022 budget will impose more hardships on Ghanaians
The government has imposed three killer taxes according to Kwakye Ofosu
These triple taxes are a sign that the economy is sick
When the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta appeared before Parliament on November 17 to present the 2022 budget, he announced three ‘killer’ taxes.
These three, according to Felix Kwakye Ofosu will only increase the hardships that Ghanaians have been subjected to under the current administration with its mismanagement of the economy.
The aide to former President John Dramani Mahama submitted in a November 23 appearance on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana programme that the government was clearly showing insensitivity towards the suffering of its citizenry.
He identified the three ‘killer’ taxes as the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy), the reversal of the benchmark revenue and the 15% increase on all government services and charges.
“The Minister goes to read the budget and in addition to all the raft of taxes we have had to endure under this government over the period, he introduces three killer taxes,” he stated.
“The first one is the reversal of this benchmark revenue. This reversal has meant that importers are going to increase their prices between 25 to 30%.
“They want to start from January 2021 which is the most difficult part of the year when people would have spent on Christmas and have pending payments and you are going to increase it (spending squeeze) with a hike on basic items.
He cited how in 2019, Vice President Mahammudu Bawumia as head of the Economic Management Team had justified why Ghana needed to discount benchmark values to 30% for vehicles and 50% for all other items, stating that the current reversal is a betrayal of that position.
On the E-levy, he linked it to the Vice President’s recent lecture at Ashesi stating: “…that whole hoopla around digitalization at Ashesi was to prepare our minds for this Bawumia tax. It was to create the impression of some major shift, some seismic activity to justify the need to pay taxes.
“And it is little wonder why people have called this Bawumia tax, because that is what it is. That whole digitalization propaganda was intended to provide a rationale for levying Ghanaians on this particular matter.”
He bemoaned the impact of the controversial tax on services and operations especially of small and medium scale enterprises across the country and also on persons seeking to make snappy transactions to people in dire need.
According to him, the 15% increment in government fees and charges was, even more, devastating the E-levy and benchmark reversal issue.
“There is a yet more devastating tax, that is, the 15% increment in all government fees and charges. Many people have not averted their minds to it because it appears intangible to them.
“LI 2386, Fees and Charges Miscellaneous Provision 2019, has 749 pages and lists all fees and charges government institutions take, it lists all 129 MDAs with 20,000 separate fees charges from school fees, academic user facility, Lands Commission, GRA (and) at all institutions government offers some service.”
He explained further: “Even with the 15% increase, every year it is going to be reviewed upwards with the rate of inflation, so there is every indication that this will go up and then 5 years later it will be reviewed upwards so this perhaps is even more devastating than the e-levy.
“They want to squeeze water out of stone… so that the Finance Minister can raise an additional 25 billion cedis over last years’ revenue. He hopes to get 15 billion from these draconian taxes and 10 billion from existing fiscal arrangements,” he added.
What Ofori-Atta said about review on government fees and charges
Review Fees and Charges with an average increase of at least 15 percent in 2022 and thereafter subject it to automatic annual adjustments by average inflation rate as published by the Ghana Statistical Service, but with the prior consent of the Minister for Finance.
The fees and charges should, however, be subjected to general review every 5 years. The effective date of implementation is 1st January 2022.