0.2% AU-funding import levy likely

A 0.2 per cent tax on imports could soon be implemented by Ghana as its contribution for the funding of the African Union (AU).

This is because the African Union at its recent Summit in Addis Ababa agreed that member countries impose that levy to internally generate additional funds and revenue to run the union.

“The African Union has taken a decision that an additional levy of 0.2 per cent be put by all African countries on imports which will be set aside and put in a fund as those governments’ contribution to the AU fund,” President Nana Akufo-Addo’s Spokesperson Mustapha Hamid briefed journalists.

Mr Hamid explained that the annual budget of the AU is approximately $400 million, out of which member countries contribute between $150million and $170million and the rest sponsored by non-African states.

However, the AU agreed that “it is not acceptable for a group of sovereign and independent nations to be dependent on other nations for the running of their Union”, hence the new taxes.