The Dean, Graduate Studies, at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Professor Kwaku Mensah Mawutor, has said the figures churned out by the Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in his address on the Ghanaian economy were verifiable.
Prof Mawutor said he personally factchecked the Vice President and came to the conclusion that the figures could be verified.
Speaking on the Key Points with Dzifa Bampoh on TV3 Saturday April 9, he said “The figures were there, they were verifiable. Undoubtedly, some of the figures that were churned out, I verified some of them from the various platforms. It tells you that indeed, if we are looking at the descriptive analysis, he did a very good work by describing the performance of the NPP, juxtaposing it with the NDC’s.
“It is also evident that undoubtedly, the current government has enhanced some of the economic performance indicators. To be frank with you, GDP even though in the midst of crisis, is improving. The first few years we all saw that improvement from 3.6 to almost more than 6 per cent GDP.”
The Vice President said on Thursday April 7 among other things that “as part of measures to get the economy back on track, improve domestic revenue mobilisation and improve efficiency, government increased a number of taxes.
“These include: The extension of the National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy and the Special Import Levies from 2020 to 2024; Imposition of a luxury vehicle levy which was later abolished; Increase in CST from 6% to 9% and subsequently reduced from 9% to 5%; Increase in National Health Insurance Levy from 2.5% to 3.5%; Sanitation and pollution Levy of 10 pesewas on the price of a liter of petrol/diesel.
• Energy sector recovery levy of 20 pesewas per liter on petrol/diesel; A financial sector clean-up levy of 5% on the profit; before tax of banks; The introduction of an E-Levy of 1.5% on electronic financial transactions.”
“However, it is important to point out that notwithstanding the revenue challenges we inherited at the time of taking office, we took the decision to reduce taxes in the economy.
“We were aware that our decision to reduce the taxes could worsen our revenue challenges in the short term but we were of the firm conviction that this would spur growth and increase tax revenues in the medium to long term.
“In fulfillment of our manifesto promise to move the economy from a focus on taxation to a focus on production we have thus far reduced or abolished at least 18 separate taxes and levies and most of them were manifesto promises. No such broad based reduction in taxes has been implemented by any government since independence.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana
