Corporate tax hikes worrying – ARB Apex Bank

The ARB Apex bank has said it is engaging the Ministry of Finance to review the taxes on rural banks, following the hike in corporate taxes from 8 percent to 25 percent.

Act 896, of the recently passed New Income Tax Act, 2015 upwardly reviewed the corporate taxes of rural banks. The elevation of taxes from 8 percent to 25 percent became effective this year, a development many rural banks are not very pleased with.

Speaking at the 28th annual shareholders meeting of Nwabiagya Rural Bank Limited, at Barekese, the Deputy Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank, Mr. Alex Kwasi Awuah, said his outfit is vigorously pursuing the Ministry of Finance to reduce the tax rate on rural banks.

He urged all shareholders and stakeholders of the bank to be patient while hoping to hear favorably from the Ministry of Finance, in due time.

He however, charged rural banks to pay close attention to their finances ensuring that there is balance between profitability and liquidity,

Mr. Awuah explained that banks should make available money at any point a client needs it and should not be so engrossed in making profit to the point that they take certain decisions that will negatively affect them, in the long run.

“The Bank of Ghana and the Apex Bank has agreed that most of the secondary reserves money should go into treasury bills, but we have realized that most rural banks are investing in other financial institutions,” he stated.

He advised RCBs engaged in this act to be careful about some of these investments. He further called on rural banks not to see one another as competitors but as friends while being each other’s keeper.