The government of Ghana cannot continue to operate at this rate where 46% of
government revenue annually or almost half of our budget outlay is earmarked for
salaries of government workers and our tax collection is in shambles due to few
people paying taxes and our tax system is riddled with corruption.
While we spend about 75-80% of our budget on salaries, social programs and servicing of debts, we are left with only 20-25% for development of the country every year and half of this amount ends up in Accra where our Elitist Politicians have all moved to leaving the rest of the regions with ten (10%) for development hence those regions where the indigenes or the region is not blessed with natural resources or enough BURGERS (People living abroad) take developmental projects have become wastelands.
In Europe, USA and other developed countries, between 75-80% of their budgets go into research and development whilst 0nly 20-25% goes into salaries and social
programmes despite the fact that most of these countries provide liberal social
programmes like free medical care and housing for its people. We in Ghana are doing the opposite and trying to reach the same results, it is not going to happen when the government continue to create constituencies that we do not need and add more expenses to the government budget.
I really do fear for my country especially people living in Accra. We have put too
much pressure on that land with as many as four million people living in a city that
should not have more than 1.5 million people. It's such misuse of lands that bring
natural calamities due eroding environmental protections. The government as I said
before is not collecting enough taxes and revenue due to low tax base and
corruption. Of all the people working in Ghana, less than 20% pay income tax or any
tax to help develop the country and we rec
eive most of our tax and other revenues from the Tema and Takoradi harbour where
tax and revenue evasion is rampant due to coruption. The killer taxy system
implication for our country is mind boggling and this has impeded national
development
To analyze the negative impacts of every single import tax implication will not be
appropriate and permissible in this forum and space. But let’s take a look at two
items; medical equipment and systems and building equipment and materials. The
medical equipment issue is in a way similar to the cars; the major difference being
that most of the medical equipment is abandoned when the frustration level exceeds
the desire and good-feeling levels. The negative impacts are more or less the
same. The dialysis machine that was left at the port would not help the persons in
the village and cities who desperately need them. The irony is that these criminal
authorities hindering the clearing of the medical systems and equipment will have
enough money and resources to seek other sources of medical attention, more likely
overseas, when they require it. Thus they never see the negative impact of their
criminally disastrous activities. The employment it
would have created and the medical care it would have provided are never realized.
The second of the two points that required serious discussion is building, that is
housing, materials and equipment. These items suffer the same import tax fate as
all other imported items. But unlike all other imported and domestically produced
items, the building materials seem to be the most often ignored and the most
imported in terms of employment, economic growth, wealth and income generation,
tax-revenue generation and uplifting of society. Interestingly, the tax impact on
building materials has less to do with the general impact on the larger or
particular sector of society but more to do with the lack of interest to endure the
frustrations. Addressing the issue of impact, the materials whether funneled
through the criminal activities or legally cleared and acquired will result in the
same general impact on the economy and society one way or the other; there can be
further argument in the negative.
But let’s look at the lack of interest which curtails building/construction
activities. When a building is being constructed, every facet of economic activity
is indirectly or directly touched. Let’s list the economic activities:
Land acquisition
Surveying the land
Clearing the land
Digging/trenching the foundation
Masonry foundation work
Plumbing foundation work
Electrical foundation work
Carpentry foundation work
Steel bending foundation work
Masonry work till lentil level
Carpentry work till lentil level
Steel=bending work till lentil level
Carpentry and masonry work at lentil level
Roofing
Tiling and/or carpeting
Finishing
Furnishing
Connecting water and sewer
Connecting electricity and telephone
Landscaping
Painting
Tax assessment
Building inspection
Add whatever you can to it.
So as you can see, hardly any economic activity is not affected by building
construction. The single point of tax collection “necessitates” the collection of
the “maximum” from all items that can be accounted for. In this regard, fewer
construction materials can be imported individually. At the same time, the domestic
market has been made artificially expensive -- due to criminally corrupt
investment codes that mitigate against healthy competition -- and not suitable for
vibrant economic activities.
Justice Sarpong
Houston, Terxas
(CARDINA of TRUTH)
