Businesses to pay 5% of profits as tax

Businesses will by the end of this year have to set aside five per cent of their profits as stabilization levy.

This follows the approval of the levy by Parliament on Thursday.

The levy would be applied on the profits of banks, financial institutions, mining firms, Telecom company and brewery firms.

It would be applied for a period of 18 months.

Government is hoping to raise 88 million Ghana cedis from the Stabilization Levy. But some businesses who would be affected by this tax have told Joy Business timing of the tax is unfortunate since most of them are going through some challenging times.

Government in 2009 introduced the levy, but was later abolished in 2011 after compliance from businesses.

Meanwhile, importers might be paying more for some selected imported goods as government has finally secured approval from Parliament to tax these items.