Gabby: Our taxes are working for us - The Daily Statesman Newspaper

A leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has noted that the Akufo-Addo government has ensured that taxes collected from the citizens are used in their collective interest.

In a statement to explain the relevance of the government’s proposed Electronic Transactions Levy (E-Levy), he stated, among other things, that the taxes “work for us when our children don’t pay fees in public schools from kindergarten through to university where loans are now given without a guarantor. Indeed, I believe Ghana is the only country where majority of secondary students are borders and don’t also pay for the privilege.”

He added: “Our taxes work for us by keeping us safe with more money spent on security than ever. They help to give us more good roads than ever in our country’s history. Your taxes have kept electricity bills low for four years and lower than what they were six years ago!”

Unprecedented record

While stressing the need for the citizens to demand greater transparency in the use of their resources, he stated that “no government in our history has spent more on social interventions to help the masses than this [Akufo-Addo] Government.”

According to him, no government has spent more on farmers, nurses, teachers, students, public sector workers and the physically challenged than the current administration.

“No government has done more to support factories, improve education and health, equip the security agencies and in helping the young unemployed to be gainfully employed than the Akufo-Addo administration. All that the President is asking for is for Ghanaians to give more so that he can do much more for them,” he added.

Elsewhere

Mr Otchere-Darko is particularly surprised that some Ghanaians living abroad, or who used to live and work abroad for years, are today complaining that the Ghanaian government is over taxing the people.

According to him, one thing he does not miss living abroad and for leaving abroad is the constant dread from returning from work daily to fresh letters, all demanding one payment or the other.

He explained that even though in America the debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio is over 130%, the government is not choking on debt servicing because they raise enough revenues.

“For insatnce, UK has a debt to GDP ratio of some 108%, higher than Ghana’s, which is around 80%. But, the British government uses less than 10% of revenues raised to service interest payments and it is because their tax to GDP ratio is around 32% and not 13% like here.

“You live in the USA where 40% of Americans spend half of their income servicing personal debt and where you pay 8 to 10 different taxes on top of your income taxes. And, yet, you have not once written to your Governor or Senator for your state to protest against taxes. But you are on Facebook urging Ghanaians not to pay E-Levy,” he observed.

He added: “In the foreign country where you live(d), you pay: Income tax, Property tax, State tax, County tax, City tax, Federal tax, Ad Valorem tax, Car tag tax, Sales tax, Gift tax and even special purpose tax when they want to improve schools, for instance.

“You have moved back to Ghana and now living in your OWN COUNTRY comfortably, paying little or NO TAXES and constantly bashing the government for not doing enough and also not widening its tax net.”

Masters of our destiny

Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, says it is time for Ghanaians to become masters of their own destiny by joining the government to bridge the country’s revenue gap. He believes this can be achieved when the E-levy is embraced and implemented.

Speaking at the second Townhall Meeting on the E-Levy, organised by the Ministry of Information at Sekondi, in the Western Region, yesterday, Mr Ofori-Atta said the time had come for Ghanaians to step up contribution towards paying for the demands they make.

He explained that, as a sovereign country, it is important for Ghana to be the master of its own destiny by mobilising more local resources “to pay for the things we demand”, adding that the days when Ghana looked to international partners to bail it out or fund its development agenda are over.

“We are the ones who have to mobilise our own resources to fund the development we want. Our sovereignty and dignity require that we look inward and see how to pay up and make the Ghanaian vision a reality,” he said.

IMF bailouts

Responding to calls on the government to abandon its revenue-raising efforts in favour of a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, Andrew Mercer, Member of Parliament for Sekondi, said an IMF bailout is an additional loan that will exacerbate Ghana’s debt problems, while also restricting it from spending in critical sectors of the economy.