The National Welfare officer of the Ghana Union Traders Association (GUTA), Benjamin Amoah has accused the government of sidelining them in the proposed taxes that was announced by Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu during the 2021 budget presentation on Friday March 12, 2021.
He said the government did not engage the leadership of the Association before introducing these taxes.
Speaking to Nkosuohene Ohene Addo on Plan B FM ‘Nkosuo Nsem’, He said that should the proposed taxes be approved, it would bring untold hardship on them especially as they are yet to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 on their personal economies.
“We are appealing to the gov’t to rescind its decision to increase taxes. As businesses, we always look for a conducive environment to do our business. Therefore, any tax that is problematic for us needs to be looked at. Imposing taxes is not the way to go when you want to raise revenue. The government needs to widen the tax net to bring in more businesses and persons that are not paying taxes,” he said.
“Increase in taxes will affect the prices of goods and services in the market since most items have VAT and NHIL on them. Gov’t should find an innovative way of boosting tax revenue rather than imposing so many taxes on the ordinary Ghanaian,” he added
“There are loopholes in the revenue generation of the state that the gov’t needs to find solutions to rather than bringing in new levies. We are appealing to Members of Parliament to not let us down this time around. They should throw this taxes away because there is clearly a lot of revenue that the state allows to go unaccounted for, and then we come back to squeeze the same people who are already crying for paying too much” he concluded
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