Haruna Iddrisu’s position on the E-Levy problematic– Prof Ransford Gyampo
A lecturer at the University of Ghana Political Science Department Prof Ransford Gyampo has questioned Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu’s understanding on the controversial E-Levy captured in the 2022 budget. Apexnewsgh.com report He described Haruna Iddrisu’s posture ongoing E-Levy debate as problematic. Prof. Ransford Gyampo on his Facebook wall Wednesday, December 8, 2021, posted: 1. Haruna Iddrisu’s confused position on the E-Levy is problematic. It clearly shows that he and his party, the NDC haven’t learnt any serious lesson on what has created the kind of parliament we have today. He was heard publicly asking for a reduction of the 1.75percent to 1percent. Now he’s saying the whole E-levy must be jettisoned. What is this, Haruna? 2. It appears he spoke out of his own conviction on the 1percent and was later forced by his party to reverse what he’s publicly said to outright rejection of the levy. How does this make him feel as Minority Leader? Extreme partisan manipulation of leaders who have their own conviction in synch with their constituents, is a recipe for disaster in any democratic representation. 3. Representation is not about political parties and their interests. It is absolutely about constituent interests. Any attempt to extol partisan interest over constituent interest would backfire in a manner that would hurt a political party badly. We have a hung parliament today partly because the NPP wanted to safeguard its partisan interest by imposing candidates on constituents. They are paying dearly for it, even though their pain is also paying for democratic deepening. 4. The decision to support or not to support the E-levy must be based on the Ghanaian constituent interest and not partisan interest. Constituency interest and partisan interest must never clash in the context of representation. In other words, to make him a champion of democratic representation in the discourse on the E-levy and all other parliamentary deliberations, Haruna Iddrisu must pander more to constituent influence than NDC partisan influence. This is what makes him a representative of his people. 5. The NDC must understand that their MPs are first, representatives of their people/constituents. Partisan interest that breeds unnecessary intransigence comes secondary, and cannot be used to manipulate leaders in parliament in the context of democratic representation. 6. Haruna Iddrisu must therefore not allow himself to be weakened and be made manipulable by the party in a manner that sacrifices his own convictio, independence of thought and need to first articulate constituent/national interest in any discourse. You cannot say 1percent today and then turn around to call for total rejection simply because of a “kakai” in your party. 7. The well meaning Ghanaians who have spoken against E-levy have done so because of its potential impact on the already burdened tax-payer, the poor and the possibility of bringing cash economy into full scale. These should be the reasoning behind any call for reduction or total abandonment of the levy. Excessive partisanship in this discourse is repulsive to floating voters as it would lead to needless intransigence that would eventually make the country ungovernable. It must however be noted that a chaotic and an ungovernable country perceived to have been directly or remotely orchestrated by the opposition would not score them any political political point. Rather, it would anger floaters and win more sympathy for the ruling elites. 8. Both sides should therefore go do sincere dialogue, knowing that, consultations cannot be held in perpetuity and that none has the weight to throw about. Also, the threat to shut down the entire government, should the budget not pass, is an unnecessary political blackmail that has no place in situations that calls for proper dialogue. No intransigence, no show of any power that doesn’t even exist. Yaw Gyampo A31, Prabiw P.A.V. Ansah Street Saltpond & Suro Nipa House Kubease Larteh-Akuapim Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0555568093.
MTN announces appointment of new Digital and Fintech CTIO
MTN Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Hermann Tischendorf as our Chief Technology & Information Officer for Digital and Fintech. “We are delighted to have a seasoned executive of Hermann’s calibre joining our growing DigiFin team,” says MTN Group Chief Digital and Fintech Officer Serigne Dioum. “He brings the skills and experience that will accelerate innovative digital and fintech advancements in line with our strategic intent of leading digital solutions for Africa progress.” Hermann joins from 4Finance Group, where he was Chief Technology Officer. He has 30 years of experience in the financial services sector, where he has occupied numerous senior roles. Hermann brings a solid track record of success in directing organisational expansion, digital product development, operations management, IT budget allocation, as well as mergers and acquisitions. At MTN, Hermann will bring transformation and disruption to our mobile payment platform and help improve customer engagement, experience, acquisition and loyalty. He will also be responsible for developing new products and services, building the nascent ecosystem and scaling up existing revenue streams. Hermann holds a Master of Business Administration and a Diploma with Honours from Karl-Franzens University of Graz, Austria and studied Finance & Banking at the Anderson School of Management, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). His appointment took effect on 1 December 2021. Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your credible news publications. Contact: 0555568093.
What government Canceled is Public road tolls not private–Buaben Asamoah
The Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Yaw Buaben Asamoah has revealed that what the government has canceled is public road tolls and private road tolls. Apexnewsgh.com report According to him, the cancellation of the public road tolls was as a result of lack of equality and equity. “We are cheating the people who stay where the road tolls are. Because the government has its own toll areas and those people who lived and used the tolls are suffering because they are paying and the rest are getting the benefits and are not paying”. Mr. Yaw Buaben Asamoah, made the clarification during an exclusive interview with Apexnews-Ghana on Wednesday, December 8, 2021. He believes the road toll levy wasn’t fair for all Ghanaians because only a few pay whiles others enjoy it. “What we have canceled is public road tolls and not private road tolls because, in some areas in the world, private people can build road and toll it to recover their money, we are not there yet. So, we have public road tolls. We have abolished public road tolls. “So, if you lived in Kasoa and there is a toll there and used trotro it means when you go in the morning you pay Gh1.00 and coming in the evening you pay another Ghc1.00 and that is Ghc 2.00 a day. Calculate 6 days a week that is Ghc 12.00. So, a trotro driver who works at Kasoa will pay road tolls but a trotro driver who is working at Nima to Roman ridge will never pay some. It is not fair. So because the road tolls points are not many and not many public roads are been tolled, what is happening is that those who lived in the area where the tolls are, are paying an indirect tax to the government and the rest of us are enjoying that tax-free and we are all getting good roads in spite of that. “It is also very inconvenience because that creates a lot of traffic and when that traffic is created, two things happen, we waste fuel and we waste production time. We waste fuel because you are sitting in the traffic burning fuel, you cannot switch off your engine and when your engine is running you are creating pollution. Aside from that, the time the person in the car who is going to work has wasted is also another thing. Aside that, when they keep stopping at the toll, they also spoil the roads very fast because of the heavy movement there and the money government is getting from there is not also enough”. Mr. Yaw Buaben Asamoah explains Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your adverts and credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093
Government brought up E-levy to move beyond petroleum levy–Yaw Buaben Asamoah
The Director of Communications for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Yaw Buaben Asamoah has said the government has brought up the E-levy in order to move beyond the petroleum levy. Apexnewsgh.com reports According to him, two things are visible, one is that a lot more Ghanaians will contribute to tax, which will make it easy for the government to function. He pointed, the government doesn’t function for profit, the government’s activities don’t generate profit for the government but they are things that give the opportunity for citizens to generate profit. Because when a government invests in a road, the road doesn’t bring the government profit but is the people who are using the road that government will tax some on their activity. Mr. Buaben Asamoah made the remarks during an exclusive interview with Apexnews-Ghana on Wednesday, December 8, 2021 He said, “Is very important that we appreciate that tax paying is not the easiest of things to do. However, government finances are driven by taxes and taxes can also be used to shape the economy in certain ways. So, the E-levy is a tax that is aiming to resolve so of the most difficult issues we have with taxation in Ghana. “The first of those issues is petroleum levy. You would realize that over the years, including the revolution time all that the government use to do was to tax petrol and anytime we taxed petrol, prices go up generally in the economy it doesn’t matter how much you put on the petrol price. So, the action of taxing petroleum has been saturated and because of the recent COVID issues with supply chain problems, you now find that even the petroleum itself price is going up worldwide. So, it is not attractive to taxes anymore. Because you cannot tax what the price is going up in the worldwide market and therefore, the government has decided to stop petroleum tax once and for all. “The other indirect tax, because we have to pay it back is loans, borrowing on the local market and borrowing on the foreign market and including in that borrowing is grants and concession from multi-literal institutions like IMF, WORLD BANK and also recently the commercial market which is BOND Market. The implications are that we never get enough money to invest in things we are borrowing for which are essentially infrastructure, roads and all the other needs and which is the principal and the interest thereon is growing up at a faster rate. And when you borrow to a certain point, you find out the interest payments are getting larger and larger and as we speak, the interest payment on our debt is hitting around 30% of our GDP. That means, for every Ghc 100.00 we get as a nation, we are going to use Ghc 30.00 to pay the debt. How much will be left for our work? So, borrowing too is no more an option, we can’t continue to borrow. So, we are at a point where we need a completely new strategy for funding our own personal needs, funding our roads, our schools, funding our hospital, funding our digital revolution, funding the things that will make us be able to move up and down, funding the digital economy itself, so that everybody can get access to the internet everywhere you are in Ghana”. “So, in order to move beyond petroleum levy, and move beyond borrowing, the government has brought up the E-levy. The E-levy means that the money which would have been put on petroleum taxes, which would have gone to borrow abroad is going to be taken from the E-transaction, which is transaction Ghanaians endorse in. “Two things are visible, one is that a lot more Ghanaians contribute to tax, which will make it easy for the government to function. But we know the government doesn’t function for profit, the government’s activities don’t generate profit to the government but they are things that give opportunity for citizens to generate profit. Because when a government invests in a road, the road doesn’t bring the government profit but is the people who are using the road that government will tax some on their activity. “So, when you put a tax on the E-levy two things happens, more Ghanaians will contribute to paying taxes which means we will pay smaller than before. “Currently, only those who are employed by the government are paying taxes. So, out of the 30 million Ghanaians, less than 10 million are paying tax. And it doesn’t fall on those people alone to be paying for all the roads, all the road re-payment and the money is not enough because they are few and we are taxing them more and more. So, we do this, that means a lot more Ghanaians will share the burden of paying the tax. So, if 11 million people are doing mobile phone transactions, the 11 million people will share and be paying the tax small small so that government can invest in our roads properly. “It also means that because a lot more people are paying, you don’t have to pay much individually. When few people are paying, they pay a lot, but when a lot more people are paying, they don’t have to pay too much as individuals because is spread across”. Mr. Asamoah told Apexnewsgh.com Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your adverts and credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093
2022 Budget full of Killer levies and taxes–Sampson Tangombu Chiragia
The Member of Parliament for Navrongo Central Mr. Sampson Tangombu Chiragia has described the E-transaction-Levy captured in the 2022 budget as a killer levy that is centered on a common person. The Navrongo legislator made the revelation during an exclusive interview with Apexnews-Ghana on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, the Navrongo Central legislator said, the region was neglected. According to the MP, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is not against the tax because no country will develop without tax. But they are concerned about the innocent common person on the street struggling to get 3 square meals a day but are forced to pay what he described as a lot of levy and taxes’ Tangombu Chiragia further pointed that, they are not against Ofori-Atta coming to read the budget, because a budget is an estimate of what is supposed to be done for the development of this country. He explained, “…the issues we think the budget is not going to help a common person and as a social democratic party. You can understand that the budget is targeted to the common person and our aim is normally looking at the gap between the poor and the rich, but this particular budget is poorly centered. That’s why we are saying that there are certain issues that should be resolved so that, we can have the budget approved”. “Actually, there are a lot of taxes are centered on the common person, if you remember the 2022 budget, they were a lot of tax including borla tax and that is why today, the borla taxes are very high because of a number of taxes involved. The actual fuel price is not like we see it today but mostly about 42 to 48 percent are taxes, Ghanaians have already been taxed a lot. “Nobody is against tax, because without tax we cannot develop, but the taxes are a lot. The current Budget as we are talking about, if you look it very well, the benchmark values which we are all enjoying the discount of 50% at the port, they are withdrawing it. If they withdraw the benchmark it now means that all the cost of goods and services brought into this country will go back by a certain percentage. Because, if you are paying Ghc 50.00 for goods brought into this country, with the withdrawal of the benchmark you are now going to pay Ghc 100.00 and that will be passed to the common person and there are some other hidden taxes that people are not aware of”. “Before they came to power, the wholesalers and retailers are paid VAT flat. When you are a flat-rate taxpayer, it means that you pay only a cooperate levy of 1%, a flat rate taxpayer doesn’t pay GETFund levy and Health Insurance Levy totaling 5%. So, if they are moving you from a flat rate to a standard rate, it means you are now coming to pay the levy as high as 6%. So, those wholesalers and retailers whose annual income is more than 500.000 will have to pay the levies of 6% before VAT is put on top and NPP people think they are very wise. They don’t talk about tax, they talk about levies. “E-Levy is a killer levy, Imagine you are a teacher or a civil servant and they have transferred you from Bolgatanga to Accra and your wife and children are all in Bolga. Then, at the end of the day, your salary is not even enough, the government increases your salary by 4% annually and that 4% percent of Ghc 3000.00 which is about Ghc 120.00 and you are sending chop money of Ghc 1000.00 to your wife in Bolga for upkeep, which means you have to pay 1.75 percent. So, you can see, you are paying the tax again on income and that is now even the final tax is a levy”. Tangombu Chiragia explains Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your adverts and credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093
Upper East Region is neglected on the 2022 budget–Navrongo MP
The Member of Parliament for Navrongo Central Mr. Sampson Tangombu Chiragia has cried out loud, over what he sees as an empty 2022 budget for the people of Upper East Region. Apexnewsgh.com Report Speaking in an exclusive interview with Apexnews-Ghana on Wednesday, December 8, 2021, the Navrongo Central legislator said, the region was neglected. According to him, not even the controversial airport issue was mentioned in the 2022 Budget, which to him, he saw as very worrying especially with the difficulty the people of Upper East go through from Tamale before getting into the region. He appealed to the government to do something by starting the construction of the Airport for the people of the region. Meanwhile, for Mr. Sampson, it does not matter where the airport is sited, because he believes any part of the region, is still better than Tamale. “As for this NPP budget, not even only constituency alone benefitted anything, I will say the whole region was neglected. If you look at the budget, there is nothing there for Upper East Region. We will continue to talk even our airport, is not easy driving from Tamale to Bolga at all”. He lamented “We are saying that in fact, they should be able to do something in such that, we can also go home every Friday and come back on Monday. We don’t mind whichever part of the region they are putting the airport for us, even if they go and put it in Garu, it will still be better than going to Tamale and traveling all the way to Navrongo. “The Multi-Purpose Dam they said they are doing for us, in the budget there is nothing there about it. We are not seeing anything that is helping the region. These are the things we are looking at. If in the whole region there is no good project, how do you then talk of a constituency? The budget is not friendly to Upper East Region at all”. He concluded Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen Please contact Apexnewsgh.com on email apexnewsgh@gmail.com for your adverts and credible news publications. Contact: 05555568093