Today in History: Ghana is broke, introduce more taxes – Joe Jackson to government

On May 18, 2021, Financial Analyst, Joe Jackson disclosed that Ghana was broke.

According to him, government has no money to undertake development projects in the country, therefore, the introduction of more taxes will help the country rake in some revenue.

In a tweet, the Chief Operations Officer for Dalex Finance said, “Ghana is broke! We spend 49.5% of revenue on interest payments. Govt needs to increase tax revenue else we may not be able to even borrow more."

Read the full story originally published on May 18, 2021 by www.ghanaweb.com.

Financial analyst, Joe Jackson has said Ghana has no money to undertake development projects in the country.

He said the country is ‘broke’ therefore, the government will need to introduce more taxes in order to generate revenue.

In a tweet, the Chief Operations Officer for Dalex Finance said, “Ghana is broke! We spend 49.5% of revenue on interest payments. Govt needs to increase tax revenue else we may not be able to even borrow more."

“This budget takes the easy way out by imposing indirect taxes which affect the poor more than the wealthy. #TaxTheWealthy #HardDecisions”.

His comments come after Ghana’s Parliament has passed tax laws and amendments. The government said these taxes were to enable authorities deal with the ravages of the virus on the economy.

These taxes include the COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy Act, 2021, Act 1068; Penalty and Interest Waiver Act, 2021, Act 1065; Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2021, Act 1066; Energy Sector Levies (Amendment) Act, 2021, Act 1064; Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (Amendment) Act, 2021, Act 1063

“To provide the requisite resources to address these challenges and fund these activities, government is proposing the introduction of a Covid-19 Health Levy of a one percentage point increase in the National Health Insurance Levy and a one percentage point increase in the VAT Flat Rate to support expenditures related to Covid-19,” the budget statement for the 2021 fiscal year said.

These taxes have resulted in the increment in fuel prices, a situation that has raised concerns among the Ghanaian public.

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has revealed that the newly-introduced COVID-19 levy is projected to generate GHc887.7million.

For the Financial Sector levy, the GRA said, an amount of GHS217million is expected to be generated.

Assistant Commissioner at the Commissioner General’s Office, Mr Dominic Naab, said these in an interview with Dzifa Bampoh on the First Take on 3FM Tuesday, May 4.

Mr Dominic Naab told Dzifa that “In the case of COVID-19 we are looking at generating about 887.7million Ghana. In the case of the financial sector recovery levy we are looking at GHS217 million.

“Then as for the VAT, the GETFund and the NHIL we are looking at 1,039,3.7 million Ghana cedis.

“So these are the projections that we are making. They remain projections until we are able to actually achieve that. “

He further stated that the GRA is working hard to ensure that all persons who are supposed to pay taxes do so.

“We are not relying on the traditional taxpayers. We are trying to also unearth others that actually are not paying.

“…you will have a neighbour who is always walking around, he is working but he doesn’t file. There are some who even sit in their homes using the cyberspace and ecommerce, they are not paying.”

Read his tweet below.

Ghana is broke! We spend 49.5% of revenue on interest payments. Govt needs to increase tax revenue else we may not be able to even borrow more. This budget takes the easy way out by imposing indirect taxes which affect the poor more than the wealthy. #TaxTheWealthy #HardDecisions pic.twitter.com/sa5LskmTAT

— Joe Jackson (@Joe_Jackson_GH) March 17, 2021