Enforce ban on pornography – Tax expert

A tax expert, Abdallah Ali Nakyea, has called for the enforcement of the law that bans pornography in the country rather than to introduce a sin tax to reduce its consumption.

His concern comes in the wake of news that government was contemplating introducing a sin tax on certain products in the country.

A sin tax is a tax on certain commodities that when consumed, can have dire ramifications to a person. In most jurisdictions, sin tax is tax imposed on alcohol, tobacco, candies, fast foods, soft drinks, drugs, pornography and in some countries, depending on what they want to fight against in terms of health care, they could include sugar.

Touching on items that should be taxed on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM, Mr Nakyea said pornography should not be taxed but banned in total.

He said: “When it comes to the issue of pornography, I think there should be a total ban because that is what is in our laws over the years that you cannot even bring it in and is in the Customs Act, and so is it an issue of finding a short cut of not trying to enforce or monitor an existing law or policy? That is my worry in other areas.”

“Why should there be a sin tax on pornography rather than an outright ban and enforcing and ensuring that it does not happen. Unless we have come to accept it as the order of the day, unless that is the rational, very soon we may be allowing all sort of things and rather using taxes to deal with it,” he added.