Parliament approves waive tax of 8m euros for Ghana Water Company Limited

Parliament has approved the request for waiver of import duties, importers VAT/Getfund levy, import NHIL, ECOWAS levy, EXIM levy, special Import levy amounting to eight hundred and two thousand two hundred and sixty-two euros on project materials and equipment to Ghana Water Company Limited.

The waiver is on project materials and equipment to be imported for the implementation of the ‘Services for the Enhancement of Nationwide Water Network Management “project by the Ghana Water Company Limited.

The government of Ghana entered in an export credit agreement with UniCredit Bank Austria AG for an amount of Eight Million Euros to procure some technology, among others for the GWCL to execute a nationwide water management project was approved by approved by parliament on December 18, 2017.

This project when completed will enable GWCL to properly plan and maintain its systems, improve revenue collection, reduce non-revenue water and improve public relation support of the company.

In order successfully implement this project, there is the need to waive taxes on duties applicable.

It is in this regard that the request for the waiver of tax and duties was submitted to parliament in accordance with Article 174 of the 1992 constitution.

before its approval, Deputy Minority leader in Parliament, James Avedzi stated that it high time institutions such the GWCL take it upon themselves to solve certain minor issues since it’s a limited liability company.

“… if we are going to undertake a major expansion of the network, one like going to provide water to communities government definitely will come in, but there are certain minor things GWCL should be able to do that. If they are not able to do that then it’s becoming too much.”

“… I think it is time we begin to question some of these utility companies that when these loans are taken by government and given to them they don’t pay back” he added

Adding on the Challenges of the GWCL, Majority speaker of parliament stated that the usage of potable water in the metropolitan is unaccounted yet GWCL isn’t putting in enough effort to address these challenges.

“The rural dwellers are paying much higher rate than the city dwellers where the big systems operate. Apart from that unmetered water exist in the city here than it is in the rural areas, so the usage of potable water is much unaccounted for in the metropolitan areas than the rural areas that is where the problem is.”

“Ghana water is not making much efforts to ensure that potable water that is delivered, they chase the users to meter them because there are so many of them that are unmetered”.