Today in History: New taxes meant for citizens to share government's economic burden – Ofori-Atta

Government in its 2021 budget introduced some new taxes in a bid to help the economy bounce back from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, this was for every Ghanaian to bear some of the country's economic burden.

The

Read full articlenew taxes included a 10p sanitation and pollution levy; and a 20p excess power capacity levy, both on the Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA) with the combined effect being an increase in the ex-pump price of fuel by 5.7 percent, among others.

The government also introduced a 1 percent COVID-19 levy on VAT, Flat Rate Scheme; 5 percent financial clean-up levy on banks’ profit-before-tax.

All these according to the Minister is to help alleviate government's burden.

Read the full story originally published on March 17, 2022 by Classfm

The newly-imposed taxes announced in the 2021 budget and economic statement are meant for every Ghanaian to shoulder some of the economic burden on the government, Finance Minister-designate Ken Ofori-Atta has said.

Presenting the budget on behalf of the yet-to-be-vetted Finance Minister, Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, on Friday, 12 March 2021, told Parliament that the government was introducing a 10p sanitation and pollution levy; and 20p excess power capacity levy, both on the Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA) with the combined effect being an increase in the ex-pump price of fuel by 5.7 percent.

Additionally, the government is introducing a 1 percent COVID-19 levy on VAT, Flat Rate Scheme; 5 percent financial clean-up levy on banks’ profit-before-tax and also considering adjusting road tolls to align with current trends.

Justifying the taxes at a virtual post-budget forum by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mr. Ofori-Atta, who is convalescing in the United States after experiencing post-COVID-19 complications, said: “If you look at the taxes, we do have issues of Sanitation; and the Delta Fund for energy and those have to be tackled”.

“So, the petroleum taxes are supposed to help contribute toward that”, he explained.

“Then we have the one per cent of VAT which, essentially, is looking at making sure that we are able to pay for the vaccines and get our people working so we don’t have lockdowns and so that our infrastructure for healthcare will be a lot more robust.”

“Our financial sector also has attacks. All of these associations, somehow, have an impact on revenue collection”.

“There has to be a collective responsibility on that. We have seen the robustness of the sector over the past three or four years, and, therefore, I’m roping them in on their part as a shared burden philosophy in terms of the way forward,” he noted.

View his Timepath below;