Govt granting tax waivers to family and friends – Minority

The Minority in Parliament is accusing the government of granting tax waivers worth over $600 million to 15 companies allegedly belonging to cronies of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) under the guise of one district, one factory.

Government is currently seeking Parliament’s approval for waiver of import duty, import VAT, GETFund levy, NHIL, and EXIM levy on machinery, equipment and raw materials to be procured by selected entities under the one district, one factory programme.

These entities include Keda Ghana Ceramics Company Limited, Sunda Ghana Limited, Happy Sunshine Company Ghana Limited, Sinostone Alcohol Manufacturing Limited, Appah Farms Limited among others.

But speaking to Class91.3FM's Parliamentary correspondent, Charles Akrofi, minority ranking member on the Trade and Industry committee, Yusif Sulemana accused the government of selectivity in granting of the tax waivers.

He said: “These are waivers for their family members and cronies.

“The information we’ve picked is that if you do not belong to the NPP or if you’re not a family member of the president and you apply for this waiver, forget it, you won’t get.

“Three companies have come to complain to me that they applied long ago and they’ve not responded to them. Meanwhile, in their opinion, they believe that they’ve met all the requirements.

“Especially so, one of them was able to tell me that he applied the same day, same time with another person who is a known NPP person and that that person’s waiver was just passed recently, he hasn’t even received any response and his friends said to him: ‘I told you so, if you don’t belong to us you’ll suffer’ and then he called to tell me that this is what is going on.

“And so for us, these waivers that we’re talking about is good but it’s just meant for their family members, their party members and their cronies and that is not the way to develop or grow an economy like ours.

“If somebody has what it takes to benefit from such a waiver and be able to create more jobs and put values on our raw materials why not"?

He said he is constraint to mention names for fear the people will be stigmatized by the government since they are still lobbying for waivers.