Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, has bemoaned Ghana’s inability to access the international capital market and its impact on the domestic economy.

He made the statement on the back of the need for new tax bills currently before parliament to be passed as soon as possible.

According to him, the passage of tax measures are necessary at this point to widen Ghana’s tax net since the country has been locked out of the international capital market due to the current economic crunch.

The three new tax bills before parliament are expected to rake in GH¢4 billion annually when passed.

“If we don’t do what we have to do for the country, we will have major challenges. So, this is a set of measures we must ensure is worth passing. This is a major bridge we have to cross in closing this revenue gap and ensuring that there is more liquidity.

“We are not in a good place because we don’t have access to the international capital market. Having hard currency to service our import obligations is significantly being threatened,” he is quoted by citinewsroom.com

The bills before the House for consideration include the Income Tax Amendment Act, Amendment Act, the Growth and Sustainability Act, and the Excise Duty.

However, these have faced some opposition since they were laid before parliament last week.

Oppong Nkrumah also reiterated the need to fast-track talks with the International Monetary Fund in order to avert further economic challenges.

“It is important we complete all prior actions, lock up this deal and get a shore up best from the IMF and other inflow sources and do certain broad things to ensure that the economy doesn’t crash and expand investments that will bring economic inclusion. We need to do what must be done to ensure that we cement the kind of relative stability we have had in the last four to five months and gradually begin to reverse the economic challenges we have had,” he added.

He also urged members of parliament to support the passage of the bills as soon as possible.

“To our colleagues in the Minority, I think it is clear that we need to work together to achieve a certain objective for the country. My appeal to those in government, Minority, economic groups is that, we must ensure that these revenue bills are passed,” Oppong-Nkrumah urged.

SSD/MA