Ken Ofori-Atta’s views on new taxes and why Ghanaians need to ‘share the burden’

On Thursday, during the first day of the vetting of Ken Ofori-Atta, finance minister-nominee, he tried to justify the need for the introduction of new taxes by the Akufo-Addo administration despite the negative impact of the novel Coronavirus on businesses and individuals.

“We need to create a society that we share the opportunities as we grow and also be able to share the burden,” he said.

“We have proposed a number of taxes that would affect petroleum which will lead to revenue for a delta fund for energy - for capacity charges - because we continue to have a gap between what ECG should be paying and what the rates are. So, that was to make sure that we get the energy sector operations. We also have a huge sanitation problem that you all know about and I think that is a health hazard for the years ahead.”

The 2021 budget and economic policy of the government was characterised by several new taxes and levies meant to shore up revenue for 2021.

While delivering the 2021 budget statement, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu announced that the government wished to introduce a Covid-19 Health Levy of one per cent into the VAT Flat Rate Scheme (VFRS) and an additional one person on the National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) as part of revenue measures to help the economy recover.

He also introduced a Sanitation and Pollution Levy at 10 pesewas per litre of diesel and gasoline (commonly called petrol in Ghana) under the Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA).

There will also be an increase in the energy sector recovery levy and road tolls.