The Vice President and flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has assured the business community that his flat rate policy will benefit the economy of Ghana.
According to Dr. Bawumia, he envisions a tax system where payers understand what they pay and could use that to plan their finances, with regard to taxes.
The Vice President was speaking at the 8th CEO Summit held in Accra, on Monday, May 27, 2024.
He was asked for his thoughts on the tax system in Ghana and in his response, Dr. Bawumia indicated that should a flat tax system be implemented, the Ghanaian economy would benefit.
Dr. Bawumia argued that such a system would make the tax regime transparent for everybody to understand and comply with.
“I want to introduce a new tax system in Ghana. I don’t want to tinker with the existing tax system. I want a new tax system. I’ve studied the tax systems across the world. The most tax-competitive country in the world in the last ten years is Estonia.
“So, I took a team to Estonia and we studied their tax system. They are working on a flat-tax system. And I believe that Ghana will benefit from a flat tax system. It makes it very transparent, easy to comply with and easy to understand,” Dr. Bawumia said.
He continued that, “Today, a lot of companies don’t even understand the Bill GRA brings them. There are a lot of disputes among them. If we move to a flat system, it will be very easy for everybody to understand.
“So, from next year, God willing, when I become president by the grace of God, I am bringing in this tax system.”
The Vice President also stated that he would usher in a tax amnesty to wipe out all tax obligations for a certain year “and we are all going to start afresh on a clean slate,” he added.
PORT DUTIES
Dr. Bawumia also intends to realign Ghana’s import duty regime by moving it towards flat taxes in cedis, to ensure that the import duties are predictable for importers.
In furtherance of this, Dr. Bawumia said he would realign Ghana’s import regime to what exists with the nearest competitor, the port of Lome.
“And so, we are not going to charge import duty that is higher than what is being charged at the port of Lome, so that we stop the smuggling that is going through Togo to Ghana. Business needs predictability,” he asserted.
EXPENDITURE
The leader of the ruling NPP, Dr. Bawumia, made the point that his government would cut expenditure by the government.
According to him, he would collaborate with the private sector to innovatively finance government expenditures to relieve the public purse of the burden.
He stated that the situation where the government gathered money to procure buses for schools could be changed to collaborating with the private sector to secure these buses, and the government pays on flexible terms.
Dr. Bawumia reiterated that the private sector plays a key role in the development of a nation and that it would be right for his government to work closely with them.
ACHIEVEMENT
The Vice President, Dr. Bawumia, made the point that the Akufo-Addo-led government had not performed badly. He remarked that intervention by the ruling NPP had improved the country’s labour force, creating over two million jobs.
“We have created more jobs – 2.1 million jobs – than any [government] in the Fourth Republic. 1.2 million jobs in the public sector and 975,000 jobs in the private sector. And all of this is data that we have put out for everybody.
“We’ve constructed more roads than any other government in the Fourth Republic, done more railways, done more airports and built more public libraries than any other government in the Fourth Republic,” he said.
