Ernest Kobeah – Businessman
A Ghanaian businessman in the United Kingdom is calling on the government to move into the production of goods where Ghana could export to other countries in other to generate more revenue to reduce the tax burden on poor Ghanaians.
According to Ernest Kobeah, any increase in production leads to economic growth as measured by Gross Domestic Product or GDP. GDP is merely a metric that represents the total production of all goods and services in an economy. Improved economic growth raises the standard of living by lowering costs and raising wages.
But Ghanaians are going through a moment whereby taxes are being introduced on the already burdened citizens of whom some could not afford daily meals. In other international communities, there is some amount of money the government has allocated to support the poor ones which is totally different from Ghana.
But Mr. Ernest Kobeah believes that Ghana would not find it difficult if it moves into production because of the abundance of natural resources which we have at our disposal and counting on how Ghana can benefit from this production, he said, it can also create employment for many unemployed youths who always call on government for jobs.
Businesses are struggling to recover from the increased cost of production caused by the new tax acts arising from the July 2018 Mid-Year budget review, specifically the VAT Amendment Act, 2018 (Act 970), which reduced the VAT rate from 15% to 12.5%; the NHIL Amendment Act, 2018 (Act 971) and the GETFund Amendment Act, 2018 (Act 972) which delinked the two levies (NHIL and GETFund) and treated them as straight levies (including being non-deductible). The plight of businesses and consumers has worsened since these Acts were passed.
Capturing the number of taxes introduced by the government in the 2022 budget, he noted that Government services will see at least 15% upward adjustment
Which is one of the government’s policies measures, a “review of 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.
Mr Ernest Kwaku Kobeah challenged the 1.75 percent charge on all electronic transactions which has been introduced as the finance minister said “After considerable deliberations, the government has decided to place a levy on all electronic transactions to widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector. This shall be known as the “Electronic Transaction Levy or E-Levy”.
Mr. Ernest Kobeah said America and other great nations do not have any natural resources or less endowed natural resources as compared to Ghana yet, they have been able to produce more goods and even export some to Ghana and another world, a situation he believes Ghana can do far better than them.
