Teachers' group calls for refund of salary deductions

Ashaiman (GAR), May 17, GNA - The National Progressive Teachers Association has called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Controller and Accountant General's Department to immediately refund monies deducted from teacher's April salaries as tax arrears. Mr Daniel Obodai, Publicity Secretary of the Association, held that the deductions left many teachers with no salaries to take home, adding that this was the second time in 2008 that such deductions were made after the first one in January.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday at Ashaiman, Mr Obodai said the tax deductions were purportedly based on salary and social security arrears.

He explained that while salary arrears quoted on teachers' pay slips were as low as GH¢12.25, as much as GH¢109.94 were deducted as 'taxes on arrears' and questioned the basis of such deduction. He said some teachers lost GH¢59.73 as 'taxes on arrears' even though there was no salary arrears stated on their pay slips.

"The Association wants to make it clear to everyone that there is absolutely nothing like tax on arrears and that no teacher owes taxes on his or her income."

He described the deductions as "purely a deliberate act to siphon teachers' monies for other purposes".

Mr Obodai appealed to the GES to release the correct data on deductions to the Accountant General to avoid the recurrence of such anomalies and suggested that the refund should be made by the end of May this year.

He also urged the government not to postpone the implementation of the single spine salary structure to next year, saying such a postponement is not justified if all necessary work on the new scheme would be completed by July this year as promised.

The Association also called for a favourable national pension benefit, saying the GH¢3,000 lump money paid currently by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust as gratuity for over 30 years of service was inadequate.