Not only PNDCL300 of 1993 (Part 1)

In his feature article of Tuesday, 2 September 2008 , Jones-Lartey categorically outlined his points and made convincing case for the repeal of the PNDCL300 of 1993.

I agree with the author because the basis of PNDCL300 of 1993 is fraud and needs to die. However, it must not end there reform must go further. There are many decrees and provisions in the 19992 Constitution that are backward and need rectification as well. I need not enumerate again. Let our legislators get to work .The government may have the freedom to enact laws but not to enforce bad and outmoded ones.

As Jones-Lartey (2008 ) has pointed out in his masterpiece, “Any Ghanaian legislator, minister, diplomat or CEPS official that have travelled abroad can categorically testify that a 1999 Opel Omega 2.5TD will not be sold at Euros 12,137.07. At best the market value of a 1999 registered Opel Omega 2.5TD will be sold between 2,000 and 3,500 Euros. Therefore, to value a 1999 Opel Omega 2.5TD at Euros 12,137.07 is completely wrong. It is a daylight robbery of Ghanaians living in the Diaspora.”

In my opinion, the problem with our legislators and government officials is not ignorance, as they have all schooled and lived abroad. They know what makes the system work. Simply, it is based on science (scientific calculations) not on wishful thinking. Therefore, employing science by our legislators and government officials to ensure justice and fairness would not be too much to ask or above our leaders. However, our Ghanaian system (laws) remains unscientific. It is either based on the opinions and wishes of the President (head of state) or duplication (trial and error) without following through. Many of our laws are recycled (i.e, military decrees, or colonial heritage) that may be inapplicable to the present age. A clear example is the law in question, PNDCL300 of 1993. NDC government in parliament passed the PNDCL300 of 1993 act into law, which allowed CEPS to continue to use the Home Delivery Value (HDV) for all imported used cars and since 1993 CEPS continues to use the HDV system for valuation to calculate import duties on all used cars.

Apparently, our legislators/ officials are just playing LAZY when it comes to getting things done. They don’t want to work but they want to draw big checks (although they are capable). How many “useful” laws have parliament passed since independence and especially over the last 16 years? I even hear toxic waste is being dumped in Ghana and the lawmakers remain silent still. It suffices to say that our legislators are sleeping on the job.

It is just scary to note that about 70 percent of laws in Ghana were written at colonization or passed by military regimes-“NRC this, PNDC that, AFRC this and SMC that” (not to slight our Republic in any way but what happens with our republics). How many of these laws have the interests of the people at stake or deal justly with officials who break the law? I bet none of these laws have been reviewed by the civilian regimes. Why? I submit it is out of sheer laziness, if not complacency. How can these “smart guys” remain Complacent? What happened to love of country? What is government there for? I thought it was to make and enforce good laws? As Jones-Lartey (2008 Sept) rightly posed the question: “Where is the justice when a government in its attempt to curb under-declaration of prices of used cars do come out with an act that overtly robs its own citizens?” No wonder Ghana is cited as one of the poorest nations in the world today.

Indeed if the government/CEPS were concerned about not-worthy-vehicles plying on our roads that kill hundreds of innocent citizens daily it would have put a system in place to encourage importation of newer vehicles. The system as is (now), only encourages not just used vehicles but accident-prone-vehicles. What CEPS refuses to acknowledge is that, most likely the vehicles under consideration were not undervalued by the importers but they were truly bought at high discounted prices since they had been written off as accident vehicles. Yet CEPS would not be bothered safe to tax on book value.

Sadly the system overseen by the government/CEPS is not only dipping into citizens pockets but it is also killing precious souls. Just think about the cars on our roads: If the government were serious it could have discouraged the dangerous vehicles on our roads. However, it is content with the inappropriate, unreasonable and unjust valuation of imported used cars. How can one calculate custom duties and taxes on book value but not by market value? Will our policy makers pause to reflect on this question: When prices of used cars are drawn out of the range of affordability, what happens to the price of brand new cars? How many laws in Ghana today do not need review? In fact like PNDCL300 of 1993, most of our laws need to be reviewed or repealed.

By this article, I wish to second Jones-Lartey. I add my voice to his common sense argument and challenge CEPS to apply taxes based on the Market Value. As Jones-Lartey argues, If CEPS adopts the Market Value system, prices of used cars will reflect their real value and give credence to newer products. For if import duty and taxes fall, the price of used cars on the market will also fall. This is likely to bring the cost of transportation down as well and make newer cars affordable. [TO BE CONTINUED] Okyere Bonna See my latest books at www.okyerebonna.com

Repeal All Colonial-Oriented laws! Not only PNDCL300 of 1993 (Part 2)

In part one of this article I agreed with Mr. Lartey to repeal the PNDCL300 of 1993 as it robs hard working Ghanaians by unjust taxation. I added that all colonial oriented laws and ‘stale” provisions of our constitution also need review. If Ghana wants to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG), it must not end there but reforms must go further. There are many decrees and or provisions in the 19992 Constitution that are backward and need rectification as well. Today, I want to link bad laws to Ghana’s rising poverty and challenge our legislators to review all the colonial legacies including our constitution and laws. Let our legislatures get to work to justify their pay checks and allowances.

The World Bank on Tuesday August 26, 2008 cited Ghana as one of the developing countries where more people were living in extreme poverty than previously thought . Unwholesome government laws and policy could be one of the driving forces in the dire conditions existing in Ghana today. The World Bank report (2005) said that excluding China, the most oppressed countries are not on track to reach the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the 1990 poverty rate by 2015.

CAUTION:

No doubt Ghana today is witnessing some economic strides under the NPP as seen in road construction and Government official reports… Yet the bad news is, the wealth of the country is not evenly distributed. Never in t he history of the nation has social inequality grown in Ghana so much since independence than today. The gap between the haves and have-nots is widening daily. Political cronyism and nepotism are the key ingredients/factors. This is not how we cut down poverty? There has to be a conscious effort by the policy makers to bridge this gap or else MDG is a window dressing.

After a quarter-century (1981-2005) that witnessed the most extraordinary advances in technology, the percentage of people living in absolute poverty in Ghana remained unchanged; some 50 percent of its population subsists on $1.25 a day or less. While the actual number of the extremely poor in Sub-Saharan Africa almost doubled, from 200 million in 1981 to about 380 million in 2005, the poverty rate in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean has declined. In South Asia, the percentage of those living below the $1.25 poverty rate has decreased from 60 to 40 percent over the same period (1981-2005). “If the trend continues,” notes a 2008 World Bank press release, “a third of the world’s poor will live in Africa by 2015.

Most of the 15 poorest countries in the world -- Malawi, Mali, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Niger, Uganda, Gambia, Rwanda, Guinea-Bissau, Tanzania, Tajikistan, Mozambique, Chad, Nepal and Ghana -- are located in Africa. In spite of the many debt forgiveness and grants to Sub-Saharan African countries including Ghana, average consumption among poor people stood at “a meager 70 cents a day in 2005.”

While Ghana has sunk and may continue to blame it on others over the last quarter century our brothers (Independence) in India have made a quantum leap forward. In India, extremely uneven economic development reduced the poverty rate as a share of the total population from 60 percent in 1981 to 42 percent in 2005, said the 2008 World Bank report. Compared to India, Ghana has huge brain power or intellectual and human capital as well yet Ghana has not seen any significant economic progress. One wonders why this is the case in the face of all the parade of PhDs in government sectors. I guess the problem is not with the scholars per se but stagnant and unprogressive government policies such as PNDCL300.

In 1981 East Asia was the poorest region in the world. In China the number of people surviving on less than $1.25 a day in 2005 prices dropped from 835 million in 1981 to 207 million in 2005. This did not happen on wishful thinking. Somebody had to plan to succeed. A quarter of a century ago, the 2008 World Bank report states, “China’s incidence of poverty (measured by the percentage below $1.25 per day) was roughly twice that for the rest of the developing world; by the mid-1990s, the Chinese poverty rate had fallen well below average.” The largest factor in lowering the percentage of extremely poor people in East Asia” according to the World Bank report, has been the explosive industrialization of China. What is the plan of Ghana government to reduce poverty in Ghana? Is it Buying and Selling? Ghana is not likely to meet the MDGs should we continue in this trend.

How can Ghana government meet the MDGs without solid government policy of job creation but propaganda? Interestingly, despite government propaganda Ghana was mentioned as getting worst of. At the same time the percentage of the ‘developing world’ population living in absolute poverty has decreased from 40 percent in 1981 to 29 percent in 2005. Where is Ghana in all this? Let our government come out with innovative policies to stop the dependency syndrome of Ghana. Don’t look at relatives in Diaspora to solve all your problems. For goodness sake let government policy encourage indigenous capitalization.

Okyere Bonna See my latest books at www.okyerebonna.com