ICU supports reintroduction of property tax

The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) has backed calls for the Finance Minister to re-introduce property taxes in the up-coming mid-year budget review.

General Secretary of the ICU Solomon Kotei is confident this will assist government raise enough revenue to pursue its flagship programmes, but called for steps on how to implement it..

Solomon Kotei noted that government revenue has been affected due to the cutting of taxes and some reliefs.

“That law has been there for a long time and strangely, it is the AMA that has been managing it. It is also skewed to some section of the society, and some section is also not paying it, so spreading that tax net will not be bad and it will also raise some amount of revenue for government.”

Meanwhile, the ICU has expressed concerned with the depreciation of the cedi against major trading currencies.

Though the union acknowledged that government has stabilised the macro-economy, it implored swift measures to deal with the depreciation.

“On paper, the current government is scoring itself that they have put inflation under check and control. Nevertheless, those on the ground and all of us who are within the economy are actually not feeling the kind of change that government is trying to bring to us,” he said.

The ICU further wants government to indicate in the mid-year budget sources of funding for its major projects.