Finance Ministry defends new tax exemption rules

Despite the increased number of concerns for government to restructure the tax exemption directive for importers, Deputy Finance Minister, Kwaku Kwarteng has stressed that his outfit will not revert the decision of implementing the move.

According to him, the reversal will only bring back the numerous illegal acts at the ports.

Importers and exporters called on government to review the directive as it remains unfavorable to them.

The directive which was issued by the GRA stated that “all applicants who qualify for exemptions from import duties and taxes must make prior payments and after, make a claim for refund of the amounts paid.”

Some tax analysts have also described the move as unlawful.

They argue that the decision is unfair to importers who are entitled to tax exemption and must be rectified.

But Mr. Kwarteng explains to Citi Business News the ministry will not scrap the law.

“We are all witnesses to the tax cuts. We know they were not comfortable with the development but we have had to do it because we believe in that deeply. We have not sought to change anything especially those contained in agreement. We have a responsibility to manage this the exemption in a way. What we are saying is simple; if you have exemptions, we will not touch it.” he said.

He adds that a lot of illegalities have been blocked since the commencement of the tax exemption law.

“If the exemptions were illegitimate then by law we are required to stop that and since we started this administrative measure there have been many irregularities that have been stopped. This simple pay and get refund plan has stopped many irregularities. So the objective is not to upset you or hurt your business, the objective is to weed out the bad guys.” he stated.