Government should enforce tax measures in other regions, Dr Peprah
Parliament rejects 2022 budget
Chief Finance Officer at Valley View University, Dr. Williams Peprah believes the rejection of the 2022 budget may have serious implications on government spending and disbursements.
Parliament on Friday rejected the 2022 budget amid various issues raised about new tax measures, especially with the imposition of the e-levy.
According to analysts, this will have dire effects on the country’s expenditure since the funds to be disbursed to the various sectors have not been approved.
Dr. Peprah explained that “The impact will be that salaries are not going to be paid if government does not get a policy approval. It will also affect our interest payments because you will need authorization to make our interest payments to people, we have borrowed from.”
He stated that instead of imposing new taxes, government should put in measures to maximize revenue mobilization in other regions aside the Greater Accra Region.
As stated by the Minister of Finance during the presentation of the 2022 budget, the Greater Accra region alone contributes almost 90% of domestic taxes 2017 and 2021. He further stated that Ashanti, Western and Eastern regions together contribute barely 3 percent of domestic taxes,”
Speaking on the Marketplace on JoyNews, Dr. Peprah asked that government focuses on other regions especially the Ashanti Region where a lot of informal activity goes on to be able to widen the tax net.
“When you look at the Ashanti Region, it is a region with of a lot of informal sectors where government can use enforcement processes to make sure that a lot of taxes are paid by citizens in the Ashanti region. If you look at it critically, the Minister said about 89% of the taxes paid are coming from the Greater Accra Region. The Greater Accra region is where we have a lot of formal sector and formal sector workers. But the informal sector that we want to rope in, majority of them are in the Ashanti region and that is where we are not getting the taxes from.”
It is however being speculated that government is considering a review of the 2022 budget after the rejection by parliament. Read Full Story
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