Government failed on the promise not to increase tax – GUTA

The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has described as unfortunate the 2.5 per cent increment in Value Added Tax (VAT).

According to GUTA, this is a clear departure from the promise the government made to stakeholders during the budget hearings.

At the said meetings, the government made it clear there was not going to be an increment in taxes in the 2023 budget, GUTA said

Mr Benjamin Yeboah, the Director of Welfare at GUTA, expressed the association's disappointment with the increment while speaking in an interview with the host of Ghana Yensom morning show, Emmanuel Quarshie on Accra 100.5 FM on Friday, November 25, 2022.

“Already we have some teething problems with the implementation of the current state of the VAT.

“As an association, we have some challenges with compliance with the VAT.

“And we have raised it with Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and we were thinking there was going to be some reduction to enable more people to comply.

“We understood that the government will look at the implementation as well as the compliance rather than increment of the tax,” he bemoaned.

The government has announced that the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate has been increased from 12.5% to 15%.

The 2.5% hike was announced by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta when he presented the 2023 budget to parliament on Thursday, 24 November 2022.

According to him, the rate hike is expected to yield GH¢2.70 billion in revenue to fund road infrastructure development.

“Mr. Speaker, the demand for roads has become the cry of many communities in the country.

"Unfortunately, with the current economic difficulties and the absence of a dedicated source of funding for road construction, it is difficult to meet these demands.

"In that regard, we are proposing the implementation of new revenue measures.

"The major one is an increase in the VAT rate by 2.5 percentage points,” he told parliament.