Kwaku Ricketts-Hagan blasts Govt over ‘incompetent’ new taxes

A former Deputy Minister of Finance, Kweku Ricketts-Hagan says the new taxes being introduced by the Akufo-Addo administration is to pay for the government’s own incompetence and bad management of the economy.

Reacting to the 2021 budget in XYZ Tonight hosted by Prince Minkah, the Cape Coast South legislator said the government’s management of the economy was bad, especially during the Coronavirus pandemic.

He blamed the government’s penchant for borrowing on the ailing economy, stating the loans had been consumed instead of the government using them in ventures that will create jobs for the people and result in the expansion of the tax base.

His criticisms come at a time the government has proposed in the 2021 budget new taxes on petroleum products, 1% COVID-19 Health Levy on VAT Flat Rate Scheme and another 1% on the National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL).

Ghana’s debt as of December 2020 was 291.6 billion Ghana Cedis, from120.3 billion Ghana cedis as of 2017 January when President Akufo-Addo took overpower.

Experts have painted a gloomy picture of the situation reality begins to dawn on the government.

Whilst the government has urged Ghanaians to accept that there is a crisis and embrace the new levies, Ricketts-Hagan who is also a financial analyst thinks the Akufo-Addo government’s approach is a lazy way.

“That’s an incompetent tax,” he fumed and said, “this government can’t tax its way out of the crisis that we are in.”

He said the wanton spending on the part of the NPP regime is the cause of the hardship Ghanaians are grappling with, saying the loans were used on unnecessary events including vote-buying prior to the 2020 polls.

He has since tasked the government to create more jobs so people can get money and spend more for the government to get his tax revenue.

To him, if the government had created employment opportunities for the youth with most of its borrowed funds, the revenue accrued from their labour could be putting Ghana on the right track by now.