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Government
urged to reduce corporate tax
Accra, March 10, Ghanadot/GNA – The former Attorney-General,
Mr. Joe Ghartey has urged the Minister of Finance to reduce
corporate tax to 15 per cent to enable the private sector to
grow and thus create employment.
He said if the government is serious of partnering the
private sector, then they should have a programme for them
with the focal point being the corporate tax reduction, from
the current 25 per cent to “free money” for the private
sector.
Mr. Ghartey was contributing to the debate in Parliament on
the Financial Policy Statement of the Government for the
year 2009, which was presented to the House on Thursday,
March 5, by the Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor.
Mr Ghartey quoted from a book written by President John
Evans Atta Mills between 1990 and 1992 in the University of
Ghana Law Journal, which stated; “tax rebates leads to
employment creation.”
“The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was able to reduce
corporate tax from 35 per cent to the current 25 per cent so
this government should further bring it down to 15 per
cent.”
The former Attorney-General said the increase in Airport tax
would go a long way to raise the cost of doing business in
Ghana and prevent the growth of investment.
He said there is also the need to increase expenditure in
the public sector just like it was being done by the current
US government in the form of the “stimulus package” to
salvage its economy.
Mr. Ghartey said for example that, the government budgeted
GH¢4,562,859 for the railway sector whilst the NPP in 2008
budgeted GH¢59,682,804 for the same sector which shows a
decrease in government’s expenditure.
“The road sector for instance was also reduced from GH¢503,287,051
to GH¢386,370,228 in the current budget, so how can the
government create more jobs in the public sector if they are
not spending more.”
“This budget is not a pro-job budget,” he said.
The former Attorney-General said at the time the stock
exchange all over the world was falling, Ghana gained a
remarkable 58 per cent growth by the end of 2008, but with
the current dissolution of the Security and Exchange
Commission, the trend is beginning to go down because the
stock is no more being regulated.
Mr Ghartey said for example that the stock of the Produce
Buying Company, which government is the majority
shareholder, has had its board dissolved so there is no
oversight responsibility, thus affecting its performance.
On the Vision 2020 agenda of the National Democratic
Congress (NDC) government, Mr Ghartey said the NPP
government declared the Vision 2015 agenda when Ghana had
then not discovered oil, and wondered why after the
discovery of oil, the current government decided to push the
agenda back five more years.
GNA
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