Taxes killing Ghanaian companies as foreign businesses thrive on tax holidays – Agyinasare

The founder of Perez Chapel International, Bishop Charles Agyinasare, has blamed the collapse of Ghanaian businesses on the immediate tax imposed on them by the government.

Preaching at a Sunday service on 2 June 2019 at the Perez Chapel International at the Perez Dome in Accra, Bishop Agyinasare wondered why foreign-owned businesses are given tax exemptions to the detriment of indigenous ones.

As a result, he said, the majority of the mega businesses in Ghana are not owned by Ghanaians.

Bishop Agyinasare told his congregation that: “Do you know that in Ghana we don’t even have businesses? We like foreign businesses, we don’t have businesses, all our shops are foreign-owned – from Melcom to Shoprite to our restaurants; the Papayes, all the telecom companies, we don’t own any of them, from Vodafone to MTN to [Airtel/]Tigo, we don’t own anything.

“We say we do chocolate but Nestle doesn’t belong to us, Unilever Brothers doesn’t belong to us, we don’t own anything.

“When a foreign company wants to come and do business in Ghana, we’ll give them a 10 per cent tax exemption for them to settle within the period. A Ghanaian businessman starts the same business and from day one, he has to pay tax and, so, our businesses are collapsing.

“When a Ghanaian businessman starts a furniture company today, he has to pay tax, a foreign company starts a furniture company, he claims he’s exporting the thing then they export the thing and it still gets back here and the Ghanaian man who has started is paying taxes and so our businesses don’t succeed”.

Last year, the President of the African Centre for Economic Transformation, (ACET), Dr K. Y. Amoako said tax holidays for foreign companies is undermining Africa’s growth.

He bemoaned the lack of stringent measures by the government to mobilise taxes from international firms who are investing in African countries.

Dr Amoako said this in an interview with the media on the sidelines of the opening session of the 2018 African Transformation Forum held in Accra.