The Head of Research at the Danquah Institute, Dr. Frank Bannor, has explained that Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has not implemented the policies he is proposing because he wants to set a new tax regime.
According to him, scraping the proposed taxes will create a shortfall in the State’s current tax revenue, and until a holistic approach is adopted to fill in the gaps, the named levies cannot be abolished.
Speaking on the KeyPoints on TV3 Saturday, August 31, 2024, he explained that the current regime is borne by only a few Ghanaians and until a new regime is implemented to capture a majority of the citizenry, the policy cannot suffice.
“If you are going to abolish something, it means that you should be able to put in measures to make sure there are no shortfalls. Why Dr. Bawumia is saying he will abolish this is that, his government, if given the nod by Ghanaians, he is going to implement a new tax regime.
“This new tax regime would be designed in such a way that it wouldn’t just be like as we have it now because currently, the tax regime is borne by a few so anytime you increase a 1% or in the tax regime, it is only a few who have been identified in the tax bracket who bore the tax cost of this tax regime, so, Dr. Bawumia seeks to expand this tax regime,” he explained.
The Manifesto Committee member for Dr. Bawumia added that, the GRA’s estimated revenue per an expansion of the tax net by 13% is enough conviction that abolishing those nuisance taxes and expanding the tax net will go a long way to help the State.
“And he (Dr. Bawumia) rightly said it last two weeks in Takoradi that, a current estimate by GRA shows that even if we can expand our existing tax regime by 13% to GDP, by broadening that base, that alone can bring in about GHC150 billion and this is an estimate by the Ghana Revenue Authority,” he indicated.
The discussion comes on the back a response given by the Vice President and flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, indicating his inability to roll out some of the policies he is proposing.
During the Manifesto launch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Vice President who is also the flag bearer of the party reiterated his commitment to scrapping some taxes such at the tax on bet winnings, E-levy, Covid levy and Emissions levy amongst others.
At his encounter with the media in Accra Sunday, August 25, 2024, a journalist asked why he is not implementing those things as Vice President, but rather wait to do them after being elected President.
In his response, Dr. Bawumia stated that “I must have a manifesto otherwise if I do everything now, if I could, what would I do when I come into office?”
“I mean how can you do everything now?” he added. He continued that the Budget which was approved by Parliament is not his but rather the President’s, the reason he cannot implement any policies out of it.
“The budget that has gone to parliament which has been passed is not my budget. Is it my budget? It’s not my budget. The budget goes in the name of the President. It doesn’t go in the name of the Vice President but when you have to think about what new do you want to do, you come up with new ideas and I’ve come up with new ideas which I want to do when we come to office.”
