'There's existing tax exemption for SMEs' – NEIP shoots down NDC's promise

The Director of Communication at the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) says the NDC's promise to introduced tax exemptions for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is not new since his office has already implemented that.

According to Mr Joseph Osei Oppong Brenya there is already an existing programme where SMEs can apply for tax exemptions through NEIP.

"The Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government through the finance minister announced tax exemptions for SMEs through NEIP, so if you are an entrepreneur and want to enjoy tax exemption, all you have to do is to write to our office and we will work together with Ghana Revenue Authority to grant you tax exemption. The NDC are aware but they decided to add it to their manifesto to deceive the masses,” Mr Brenya said.

Mr Brenya noted that the NDC has never sustained any intervention and cannot be trusted when it comes to social interventions.

"Former President Kufour introduce, NHIS, Metro Mass Transit, school feeding, capitation grant, free bus ride for students and many more but the NDC took over and collapsed all these interventions, it took Nana Akufo-Addo government to revive all these interventions," he added.

He said when it comes to SMEs, the NPP government has a good track record of supporting SMEs and also creates enabling environment for SMEs to thrive.

He said the government through NEIP has trained 19,000 and funded over 4,350 of them.

This year alone, according to Mr Oppong 26,000 SMEs have been trained and 5000 will be funded.