Former Finance Minister under the erstwhile John Mahama administration has allayed the fears and anxiety of Ghanaians concerning the feasibility of the NDC’s campaign promise to abolish some nuisance taxes in the first 120 days in office.
As part of his campaign promises, President-elect John Dramani Mahama announced a social contract that indicated his commitment to undertake certain drastic measures in the first 120 days in office.
Among them is a promise to abolish some taxes he believes are a nuisance such as the controversial E-levy, Covid-19 levy, tax on betting and gaming winnings, and emissions levy. The social contract document says these taxes will even be abolished within 90 days when he assumes office.
Other tax measures, Mr. Mahama has promised include the review of taxes and levies on vehicles and equipment imported in the country for industrial and agricultural measures.
However, these many tax reliefs promised by Mr. Mahama as well as other presidential candidates in the run-up to the crucial elections have been heavily criticised considering the current state of the economy.
Financial analyst, Dr. Richmond Atuahene earlier told The Highstreet Journal that this wave of tax cuts ahead of the elections could exacerbate the nation’s already fragile economy adding that they do not align with Ghana’s fiscal realities and long-term development needs.
Others have also questioned the commitment of Mr. Mahama to implement such tax cuts on the basis that they are just promises to sway votes.
But the former Minister for Finance, who some have tipped to get the nod again in the new administration has assured the public that the tax cuts will surely be implemented. Seth Terkper believes the NDC has the technical know-how to implement such tax cuts which won’t hurt the economy. He says the track record of the former administration is there for all to see and hence people should be assured that the promise to cut tax in his social contract will be definitely implemented.
He however cautioned that some of the tax cut policies will need time to be implemented cautiously since the country is under an IMF programme.
“There were two groups of taxes, there were, to use the word, nuisance taxes, that were to go in 120 days, the other ones will be phased out, you know, remember we’re also in a fund programme, and we have to be sure. It has to happen because it happened before,” he spoke to the media at the acceptance speech event of President-elect, John Mahama on Monday.
He added, “And for the ordinary man who is saying, you know, how can you achieve this, let us remember, let us remind them that deficit was 6.1% at under Mahama before it got to 15%, debt was 57% at under Mahama before it got, you know, to over 100% with the contingency plans. Inflation was lower than all the indices, right, and therefore what we are saying is that they were not the best, the ideal that we wanted to get to, but taking them back to that is something that was done, that was achieved at under Mahama.”
For the potential Minister for Finance, the assurance to implement such tax cuts without hurting the economy lies in the economic records of the NDC when they were in government 8 years ago. He is calling on all to be optimistic for the new administration as the relief from taxes burdening businesses and individuals will definitely be implemented.
