Dr Clement Apaak, MP for Builsa South
Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Clement Apaak has commended workers of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for calling out Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for the latter’s claim that GRA was harassing Ghanaian businesses to achieve unrealistic targets.
The lawmaker said the workers ought to be commended for their courage in slamming the Vice President over his unfortunate comments.
Bawumia accused the GRA of harassing businesses under the guise of tax collection.
He said this during a discussion with members of the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, seeking their input as the manifesto committee develops ideas for the 2024 elections.
Dr. Bawumia attributed the current situation to the GRA’s practice of setting unrealistic targets for its officers, leading them to resort to taxing existing businesses excessively.
The Ghana Revenue Authority Workers’ Union (GRAWU) expressed their displeasure with a statement attributed to Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia to the effect that the GRA is harassing taxpayers.
“We have observed and listened with utter dismay and disbelief reports on media platforms regarding pronouncements made by the Vice President to the effect that GRA is harassing taxpayers and businesses.
"We would like to state unequivocally that, we the workers of GRA find this statement unfortunate and consider it as an attack on the efforts of the hard-working staff of the authority which if not discontinued, would incur the displeasure of workers, disrupt revenue collection efforts and breed industrial disharmony," a press statement from the GRA said.
However, Dr. Apaak believes the workers have been bold in calling out the Vice President for engaging in insincere politics.
According to him, the Vice President cannot make such comments when he chairs the Economic Management Team and is aware of the targets set for the GRA to achieve.
He explained that the GRA’s so-called unrealistic targets are set by the government, and the Vice President has knowledge of them; hence, his claim that these targets are unrealistic makes no sense.
He stated that Dr. Bawumia owes the GRA workers an unqualified apology for his comments.
To him, he is not qualified to be elected president and must be rejected by the people.
“The GRA workers must be applauded for calling out DMB. How can the head of the EMT, which sets targets for GRA to meet every fiscal year, throw GRA workers under the bus for working to meet the same targets set by the EMT? Does GRA work in a vacuum?
"Are tax policies not proposed by the gov’t and brought to Parliament as Bills to be passed into Laws to collect revenue to fund gov’t expenditure? DMB owes the GRA workers an unqualified apology. DMB doesn’t qualify to be President and must be rejected massively," he said.
