Posted: Wednesday, December 15, 2010. Daily Guide
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) doubts whether existing conditions in the country supports President Mills and his National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s promise of a ‘Better Ghana’, two years after they assumed the reins of government.
AFAG believes the NDC government has failed to fulfill several promises it made to Ghanaians which influenced them to vote for the party during the 2008 general elections.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, chaired by the former Member of Parliament for Lower West Akyem, James Apeatu Ankrah, spokesman for the group Steve Amoah aka Sticker challenged government to show a sense of commitment towards achieving those promises since Ghanaians were reeling under the shadows of economic hardship.
He recalled how President Mills and the NDC promised to neither increase nor introduce new taxes.
However, when the party assumed the reins of governance and in its 2011 budget statement, the government introduced a number of these taxes, AFAG said.
This, according to AFAG, “Clearly demonstrates to the nation, the heartless and wicked nature of the NDC government.”
AFAG believes that “the NDC government has reneged on its promises to deliver the so called Better Ghana Agenda”, insisting that “the NDC has worsened the quality of life of the average Ghanaian.”
Whilst noting that it was not against tax adjustment, AFAG said increases in taxes should be done in a way that would not increase the hardship of Ghanaians but boost private business growth and make them competitive.
Under the current economic conditions and business climate, they believed tax increases could hardly be a positive job creation strategy.
“Indeed, the wide range of taxes and tax increases levied on the private sector appears to be deliberate,” said Steve Amoah.
This, he said, was because the Head of Policy and Monitoring at the seat of Government (the Castle), Dr Tony Aidoo, recently described the private sector as a parasitic sector that deserved to be taxed for development.
AFAG stated, “This demonstrates that the NDC is not committed to the private sector”, adding, “It is important that the government recognizes that the market women, taxi and trotro drivers, shoeshine boys, cocoa and other farmers, carpenters, chop bar owners, small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), entrepreneurs, etc. are at the heart of the private sector.”
“Undoubtedly, the government is taxing the private sector to death. This would kill the entrepreneurial spirit of the private sector and bring the sector to its knees. It seems the government does not care. It has lost touch with reality as it continues on this tax epidemic,” it said.
The group stated that “tax stamps for the informal sector including Makola women, kiosks owners, Kejetia market women would make the poor Ghanaian poorer.”
Steve Amoah noted that the 300% increase in debt recovery levy had given rise to controversy as to whether the President was still committed to reducing fuel drastically, with the fear that this would have resultant increase in the price of petroleum products which the President promised to reduce drastically.
It could also not fathom why a whopping 20% tax had been placed on plastic products, which is targeted at companies using plastics such as those in the food, drinks, pharmaceutical and sachet water industries.
They noted that these areas of the economy, particularly the sachet water bus sector, employed mostly the ordinary Ghanaian, stressing that it was unacceptable and a clear aberration from the NDC’s mantra of not introducing new taxes.
AFAG has asked government to come out with a strategic solution to the challenges associated with the plastic or rubber waste management which could help employ more people in the society.
The leadership of AFAG could also not comprehend why talk tax had now been extended to all data and internet service companies since it would make internet browsing more expensive.
Steve Amoah said, “It is disingenuous or absurd for any government to claim that this policy would create jobs,” since “This tax would make internet browsing more expensive at a time the industry is struggling to survive.”
He said, “The internet service providers (ISPs) are finding it difficult to stay afloat and the last thing they need is another tax”, asking rhetorically, “Is the President Mills NDC government really aware of what is happening to the ISPs.”
“These taxation policies of this government are clearly dysfunctional to the aggregate performance of the private sector which plays key roles in economic growth and job creation in Ghana,” it stated.