Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta
With Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta expected to present the 2019 Budget on Thursday November 2018 in Parliament, many expectant Ghanaians are sitting on tenterhooks awaiting to hear the details of the budget and how it will impact on their standard of living.
There have been complaints of economic hardship by a section of the public with the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority in Parliament serving notice to Ghanaians to expect hell going into 2019 as the yet to be presented budget will be laden with taxes which, when implemented will bring economic hardships.
However, the snippets of information gathered from the corridors of power, indicate that the listening President Akufo-Addo government having heard the concerns of Ghanaians, is set to bring financial freedom and huge relief to Ghanaians through the prudent policies to be implemented as outlined in the 2019 budget.
This counters the claim by the opposition NDC who’ve predicted a gloomy economic situation going into 2019.
As part of measures to raise more revenue to meet its revenue target for the 2018 fiscal year, government announced that it will introduce a new tax known as the high net worth income tax, which allows the government to charge 35 percent on incomes that are over GHC 10,000. But that tax is to be reviewed.
The President Akufo-Addo led government, having listened to concerns of the people, has been sensitive enough to review the upper limit of the income tax bracket; likely to review upwards, the GHC 10,000 and above(which attracts 35percent) to a higher figure(which attracts same 35percent).
The rationale behind this is that a great number of folks are in that 10,000 bracket hence reviewing it upwards would attract the relatively higher income earners of the economy.
With Ghana expected to successfully complete the Extended Credit Facility(ECF) arrangement with the International Monetary Fund(IMF) by the end of 2018, more jobs will be created to address the huge unemployment problem among the teeming Ghanaian youth.
Ghana is also expected to make more revenue from the sale of our oil with oil price on the world market increasing.
Complaints of high Dollar exchange rate is expected to be a thing of the past as the Cocoa syndication loan which will stabilize the rise of the dollar is anticipated to come in by December 2018.
Deputy Director of Communications of the Governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Mame Yaa Aboagye in an interview with Kasapafmonline.com encouraged Ghanaians who have received text messages from their banks to register their Tax Identification Number (TIN) to do so in order to reduce the burden on some few people having to pay tax and help government raise more revenue to meet its development targets to help build a Ghana Beyond Aid.
