Franklin Cudjoe, IMANI Boss
[dropcap]M[/dropcap]r. Franklin Cudjo, the founding president of a educational and policy think thank, IMANI Ghana has described the newly announced levies by the NPP government as “funny levies”.
He was questioning bases for the yet to be announced ‘compulsory vehicle towing levy’, saying, if the levy is only one of the strategies by government to “achieve a the budgetary promise of 34% increase in tax revenues for 2017 , over 2016’s performance?” then there are better ways of increasing more revenue.
“May I submit that if revenue mobilisation is the reason behind this, [ads1]there are better ways to increase revenue than imposing a funny levy.” – he said
According to him, “First, find a way of encouraging all the over 700,000 officially registered businesses in the country to be active, access low- interest bearing capital so they can grow, employ more people and help increase the tax net. Second, focus the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs ‘ agenda on supporting farmers in the non-traditional exports to increase their production.”
“Given historical performance of the sector [agriculture], we can easily rake in $5bn gross this year. Third, fight massive revenue leakages at our ports. Data IMANI is studying suggest we could be doubling reported revenues from our ports if we block at least four avenues for leakage and abuse. Fourth, we could be saving money if we reduced the size of our government.”
Mr. Cudjo further stressed that “if we are still planning to impose a tow levy, a better way will be to let private towing companies work with visible police patrols to tow delinquent or faulty vehicles off the roads for a fee payable by the owner or driver of the vehicle. Towing companies will abound, employ more drivers and they in turn will pay income and operational taxes to the state. These suggestions may take a while to yield results, but they are certainly not funny.”
Read his full comment on the issue:
Compulsory vehicle towing levy? Is the National Road Safety Commission planning to increase their internally generated fund? Will this levy be sanctioned by Parliament? Does it have the blessings of the Roads and Highways Ministry? Surely it must. Is this part of the plan to achieve a the budgetary promise of 34% increase in tax revenues for 2017 , over 2016’s performance? Why scrap “nuisance taxes ” imposed by the previous government only to impose a funny levy?
May I submit that if revenue mobilisation is the reason behind this, there are better ways to increase revenue than imposing a funny levy. First, find a way of encouraging all the over 700,000 officially registered businesses in the country to be active, access low- interest bearing capital so they can grow, employ more people and help increase the tax net. Second, focus the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs ‘ agenda on supporting farmers in the non-traditional exports to increase their production.
Given historical performance of the sector, we can easily rake in $5bn gross this year. Third, fight massive revenue leakages at our ports. Data IMANI is studying suggest we could be doubling reported revenues from our ports if we block at least four avenues for leakage and abuse. Fourth, we could be saving money if we reduced the size of our government.
By my estimation, Ghana can do with 30 ministers over just 15 ministries. Regional Ministers and DCEs are enough for to complement the 30 ministers. By the way, if we are still planning to impose a tow levy, a better way will be to let private towing companies work with visible police patrols to tow delinquent or faulty vehicles off the roads for a fee payable by the owner or driver of the vehicle. Towing companies will abound, employ more drivers and they in turn will pay income and operational taxes to the state. These suggestions may take a while to yield results, but they are certainly not funny.
Source: Awake News | Korsi Senyo | senyo@awakeafrica.com