Former President, John Dramani Mahama has slammed the ruling NPP government for bombarding Ghanaian with taxes.
According to Mr Mahama, the rate at which the government is unleashing taxes on Ghanaians is extreme especially at this time that the country’s economy is bad.
This comes at the back of President Akufo-Addo’s decision to assent to the three new taxes into law.
READ: Akufo-Addo assents all three new tax bills into law
The bills which are the Excise Duty Amendment Bill 2022, the Growth and Sustainability Levy Bill, 2022, the Ghana Revenue Authority Bill 2022 and the Income Tax Amendment Bill 2022 have been assented by President Akufo-Addo after being passed by Parliament on Friday, March 31, 2023.
Speaking to delegates in the Trobu constituency as part of his tour in the Greater Accra region, John Mahama said, “prices at the various supermarkets have skyrocketed, government has reneged on its promise of moving away from taxation to production, to the extent that even betting is taxed, almost everything is taxed now,” Mr. Mahama said.
He also criticized the Akufo-Addo-led government for seeking debt forgiveness from its external creditors.
“The country wouldn’t have been in this economic mess if government had not engaged in excessive borrowing. We are now seeking for debt forgiveness from external creditors,” ex-President Mahama asserted.
Meanwhile, the three new financial bills seek to raise about 4 billion Ghana Cedis annually as part of domestic revenue mobilisation.
The bills are also crucial to aid the government’s quest to facilitate the Board Approval for the $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) Programme staff-level agreement.
