Parliament must outrightly reject new tax bills

The Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana is aware of plans by the Finance Committee of Parliament to present before the house, two next tax bills for deliberation, and possible passage.

The bills, the Income Tax Amendment Bill, and the Excise Duty Tax, which, according to the Nana Addo-led government, will help shore up Ghana's revenue, should be rejected by parliament in all manner.

We, as an association, believe these two taxes are just a lazy approach by the government that campaigned on moving away from taxation to production to rake in monies with the hope of stabilizing the economy.

It is refreshing to hear the leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) calling on its members of parliament to vote outrightly in rejection of the said bills since it will not in any way inure to the benefit of the ordinary Ghanaian and businesses who are already being folding out of business due to the already existing draconian taxes.

We urge the majority of MPs to also follow suit in rejecting these two bills that will compound the very challenges facing local businesses to thrive.

As we indicated after the President's state of the Nations Address by the president on the 8th of March 2023, it is high time the business community rises to demonstrate their displeasure and anger against the Akufo-Addo government for toying with their fortunes which their mismanagement of the country's economy.

We also call on the speaker of parliament to ensure voting on these two bills is made public should they be adopted for passage.

Signed
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Samson Asaki Awingobit
Executive Secretary
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