|
TUC urges gov’t to review tax-free
threshold
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh,
Ghanadot
Accra, Dec 21, Ghanadot -
Organised labour in Ghana has called on the
government to review the three-year old
tax-free threshold of GH¢240 per annum to
reduce the burden on workers in the formal
sector of the economy.
By the prevailing tax-free threshold, only
workers who earn less than GH¢240 per annum
or GH¢20 per month are exempt from tax and,
according to the Trades Union Congress (TUC),
that had not changed since it was fixed in
2006, even though salaries had increased
during the period.
At a press soiree in Accra over the weekend,
the Secretary-General of the TUC, Mr Kofi
Asamoah, argued that in that scenario it was
the workers in the formal sector who bore
the heavy income tax burden and cautioned
that the TUC would not allow its members to
continue to be treated unfairly, while
wealthy people in the so-called informal
sector were left off the hook.
He indicated that the TUC submitted
proposals to the government for the 20100
Budget Statement and Economic Policies to
review the tax schedule but was disappointed
to observe that attention was not paid to
the demand of TUC on taxes on income in the
2010 budget.
The secretary-general said the silence of
the budget on the TUC demand for a review of
income taxes meant that the government
intended to continue its over-reliance on
taxing the formal sector workers.
Mr Asamoah said the TUC had every reason to
believe that the government would tax
workers more because its revenue projections
were based on direct taxes as contained in
the 2010 budget.
He stressed that the Congress expected to
see a significant shift from the situation
where formal sector workers had become an
easy prey for the tax authorities and served
notice that next year the TUC would do
whatever it would take to ensure that
workers in the formal sector were treated
fairly under the single spine structure when
it is implemented in the public service.
On the oil discovery, Mr Asamoah said Ghana
had no reason to fail in utilising oil
revenues to turn the economy around and
deliver improved living conditions for its
people.
He said the TUC expected that the oil
revenue would be used to eradicate poverty
and misery from the country and that the
dependence on foreign aid and its associated
conditionalities would soon be a thing of
the past.
Mr Asamoah also called on the government not
to ratify Interim Economic Partnership
Agreement initiated by the former
government. Instead he proposed that the
government should partner Ghana's neighbours,
in the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS), to negotiate a trade
agreement that served the development
interest of the sub-region.
Mr Ransford Tetteh, the President of the
Ghana Journalist Association (GJA), said the
GJA and the TUC had the same desire to work
towards improved service conditions for
workers.
He said as a result of their common bond,
the GJA was ready to collaborate with the
TUC to share experiences to ensure that
journalists earned adequate remuneration for
their work.
Ghanadot
|
