Some traders in Kumasi have called on the government to adopt more sustainable and business-friendly tax policies that would help the government to optimise its revenue mobilisation while promoting business growth.
According
to them, the current Value Added Tax (VAT) policy being implemented by the
Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) “does not support our system.”
“The
tax structure and its administration do not support the features of our market.
The policy introduced taxation for each item as it travels along the
distribution channel,” the Executive
Secretary of the Ashanti Business Community, Charles Kusi Appiah-Kubi said
at a media briefing in Kumasi today (October 12, 2022).
He
said the current system where the tax was applied to every single item along
the distribution line was making the cost of items more expensive and beyond
the reach of customers.
Point of entries
Mr Appiah-Kubi
proposed that the government should collect all tax at the point
of entry of the goods into the country and allow those in the value chain to
operate free of intimidation and harassment.
He
said the current practice where the same item was charged from the key
distributor down to the last consumer, was overburdening the consumer and
making goods more expensive.
He said the tax should be collected
just once at the point of entry, either at the ports or at the factories,
thereby allowing the businesses to operate freely.
“Government
should take all its revenue from the points of entry. Take all the charges you
want to charge at the point of entry or at the manufacturing and leave us
alone," he said.
“We are ready to pay our corporate income tax and our Pay As You Earn (PAYE), but we can’t pay the VAT again,” he said.
Source: Graphic Online