GhanaWeb Poll: Nearly 80% of respondents reject introduction of new taxes

Nearly 80 per cent of respondents in a poll conducted by GhanaWeb have rejected the three new taxes introduced by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government.

The poll which was conducted between Monday, April 3, 2023 and Wednesday, April 5, 2023, had 7,836 readers of GhanaWeb participating in it.

It was conducted to gauge the reaction of Ghanaians after the Parliament of Ghana passed the three new taxes including the Excise Duty Amendment Bill, the Growth and Sustainability Levy Bill and the Income Tax Amendment Bill.

Out of the 7,836 respondents, 6,225, representing over 79 per cent of the participants, said that they do not support the government’s decision to introduce the new taxes.

Most of the respondents who opposed the introduction of the taxes said that taxpayers in the country are already paying a lot of taxes.

Others also said that Ghanaians are already going through a lot of hardships and will not be able to cope with the new taxes.

“The Ghanaian Tax Payer is already overburdened with already existing nuisance taxes therefore it is totally wrong to continue adding more taxes,” one respondent said.

“There is already hardship in the system and the additional taxes are going to compile more hardship to all of us as Ghanaians. E.g. tea bread used to be sold at 2 Cedis now sells at 6 Cedis in my area. Bag of sachet water was 2 Cedis now 7 Cedis. With these taxes, it means a bag of sachet water will be 8 to 10cedis. Boni Ben?” another respondent explained.

However, 1,367 respondents, representing over 17 per cent of the participants, said they support the government’s decision to introduce the new taxes.

The respondents in favour of the new taxes said that they (the taxes) are needed for the development of the country.

Others argued that Ghana cannot continue to rely on donations from advanced countries for its development.

“Whether you support the bills or not, they have been passed and going to work....can you people think positive for Ghana irrespective of whoever is in government?...think positive, positive, and positive for positively positive progress for the country,” one of the supporters of the new taxes said.

“Yes, I support the government, the donor countries derive their monies from effective taxes so why are behaving like little children to be spoon-fed by others? We fail to accept taxation because of disinformation by politicians. The irony of our thinking is that we ignore or don't know that development or prosperity of other nations come from taxation. We complain of Western and other countries of pillage of our resources but where do we think these freebies must come from,” another respondent said.

Two hundred and forty-four (244) participants also said they are indifferent to the introduction of the new taxes.

View a summary of the poll results below:

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