Economic Proposals in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) manifesto could leave Ghana with lost revenue and increased expenditure annually amounting to about GHc 27 billion, Vice President Kwesi Amissah Arthur has said.
Addressing students at the Cape Coast Polytechnic, the Vice President indicated that eight out of the NPP’s proposals on the economy in the NPP’s manifesto are on revenue reduction and would cost the nation billions.
“In the manifesto that they have published, they have put in about 63 proposals. Eight of them are revenue proposal in which they will reduce revenue,” he said.“When I calculate the cost and the revenue loss that their manifesto proposes, I get something like GHc 6.2 billion if they were running the government this year [2016] from the reduction in taxes and so on.”
The Veep also noted that “in addition, they have also introduced GHc 21 billion of new expenditure.”
“With the loss of revenue and the increase in expenditure, we are talking about an additional GHc 27 billion,” he added.
NPP’s shift from taxation to production
The NPP’s economic strategy is anchored on a shift from taxation to production according to its running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
At the NPP’s 2016 manifesto launch, Dr. Bawumia promised that an NPP government would lessen and abolish the tax burden on a number of sectors ranging from the ECOWAS common external tariff to levies on head porters, otherwise known as ‘Kayayei’.
Dr. Bawumia blamed the mismanagement of the economy under this John Mahama led National Democratic Congress government for the increase in taxes on virtually everything taxable.
“Taxes were imposed on even on condoms and cutlasses,” The NPP running mate noted.
Mentioning some of the taxes the party intends to reduce or scrap, he said corporate tax would be reduced from 25 percent to 20 percent. He also said an NPP government would remove import duties on raw materials and machinery from production within the contest of the ECOWAS common external tariff, along with a scrapping of the special import levy.
To accompany the various tax scraps and reductions, Dr. Bawumia assured that the NPP would “ introduce tax incentives for businesses that hire fresh graduates from schools and we are going to reduce the VAT for micro and small enterprises from the 17.5 percent to the 3 percent flat rate.”
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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