Centre for Freedom and Accuracy kicks against new tax hikes
The Centre for Freedom and Accuracy is the latest organisation to kick against the implementation of new tax hikes. According to the Executive Director of the Centre, Mr Andrew A. Awuni, it will be unjustifiable, burdensome, insensitive and inimical to the growth of the economy if the new tax hikes are implemented.
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Mr Awuni, who was stating the centre’s position on the recently introduced taxes, said Parliament erred in approving the new taxes considering what the centre said was “the huge volume of information that is available to the house on the reckless dissipation of public funds year after year, according to the Auditor General’s Report, with no signs of abatement .”
Mr Awuni said the centre’s disagreement was based on the fact that the government had not been very prudent in the use of the revenue that it collected over the years and even now there was no demonstrable evidence from the government that whatever revenue would be mobilised from those new taxes would be used judiciously and in a transparent manner.
He added that though the government needed money to finance development projects, to pay salaries and to do many other things, “this easy path of always coming back to the people to tax them more only to go and scatter whatever has been mobilised cannot and should not continue,” Mr Awuni stated.
“For now, these new taxes, in our view, will constitute a major burden on the people and business organisations in this country, with no guarantees whatsoever that the public will benefit from them.”
Mr Awuni said the government was seeking to raise GH¢371 million with the new taxes but using the Auditor General’s Report, he said in only one of the several findings of the Auditor-General, the state lost GH¢75million in bank penalties alone in 2011 for poor treasury management.
As if this amount was not big enough, for the year 2012, Mr Awuni said, estimates so far indicated that the state lost over GH¢300 million in bank penalties again for poor treasury management by some MDAs.
That, he said, meant that in two consecutive years (2011 & 2012) MDAs lost about GH¢400 million in bank charges alone because some people did not do their jobs well.
“This amount is more than what the Finance Minister is seeking to raise with the new taxes,” Mr Awuni complained.
“We will very soon complete our investigations and analysis of the Government’s revenue and expenditure for the year 2012 and we will invite you here again, God willing, to share with you our findings but we assure you that the story will not be any different,” he told the media representatives.
He said things had gone from bad to worse. For instance, “we knew as a matter of fact that in the year 2012, actual expenditure for some 17 MDAs alone was in excess of the 2012 budget by over GH¢1billion.
“Ladies and Gentlemen you will not believe it but it is true: GH¢8.3million which was realised from the sale of some state assets as far back as 2010 has still not been paid into the consolidated fund as we speak. Many government loans are still outstanding, projects funds have been understated, multiple payments of salaries and pensions were recorded etc. etc,” he stated.
By Kobby Asmah
