Music Industry Needs Tax Holiday

Professor John Collins, Associate Professor of Music at the University of Ghana, Legon, has once again added his voice to the call on government to support the music industry to develop.

He said the government should help musicians to access the micro credit loans granted by the World Bank and pointed out that such loans will support the local bands, nightclubs, recording studios and tourism.

Prof. Collins who made the comments in an interview in Accra, said ?this will help Ghanaian artistes create an exportable highlife music that can have a place on the world music market and earn some foreign exchange, which has eluded this country for a long time?.

He also noted that an enabling environment should be created by establishing a special cultural outfit with a ministerial status, to attract World Bank support.

At a World Bank meeting that Prof. Collins attended in the US, with
other delegates, commercial growth potential of the music industry in
Africa was discussed and five African countries, namely South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal were the focus.

As part of measures to salvage the image of the industry from the dol-drums, the music Professor suggested that the government should declare a minimum of five-year tax holiday for Ghanaian bandsmen. In the light of this, he said the government?s 2004 budget policy to give tax relief on the importation of musical instruments is most welcome.

The idea of tax holiday on local creative arts, Prof. Collins noted, has
worked elsewhere and cited the Canadian and Australian experiences where their film industry had benefited. The Irish arts sector also benefited from such a move.