Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dalex Finance, Mr Kenneth Thompson, has urged government to increase taxes and introduce new ones to raise revenue to save the Ghanaian economy from imminent collapse.
Mr Thompson urged the Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori Attah to face the reality, take tough decisions and “I’ll be there to support you.”
Sharing his thoughts on the economy at a lecture organised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG), Mr Thompson stated that Ghana’s debt level had reached an alarming level, a situation that could create negative effects on the economy and throw government’s flagship programme, One District One factory out of alignment with planned spending.
“We are not likely to reduce our expenditure on salaries in the short term, and even though there has been some capping of statutory obligations the net effect is negligible. Our only hope is to increase revenue in the short to medium term in order to fund consumption expenditure, “he stated.
He urged government to get the informal sector to start paying individual taxes, enforce evidence of tax payment on property registration, for example, vehicle registration, company registration, land title registration and increase taxes across board especially property taxes.
"That is our hope in the short term, and reduction in profligate spending, example stopping the purchase of numerous Toyota Land Cruisers that cost over GHC 600,000 each,” he admonished.
Ghana is broke
According to Mr Thompson, “Ghana is broke and heading for a disaster,”
Cedi overvalued
Ghana’s overvalued cedi had made the country’s exports expensive and non-competitive, while imports were relatively cheap.
The development, he noted had resulted in stunted economic development and unemployment.
Ken Thompson made the case that the trickle-down effect of the overvalued cedi will jeopardize most, if not all government initiatives including the “Planting for Food and Jobs” programme.
“The initiatives are likely to be non-competitive because of the overvalued cedi, Mr Thompson argued.
“We spent almost 100 per cent of all our revenue including grants on three line items as follows: compensation to employees, interest payments, and, statutory payments, example GETFund, District Assemblies Common Fund, and NHIS," he said.
Mr Thompson also raised concerns over the rise in government expenditure which he described as worrying.
Borrowing spree unhelpful
The Dalex CEO criticised the use of borrowed funds to settle recurrent payments.
“Since we spend over 100 per cent of our revenue on compensation to employees, interest payments, and statutory payments, all our other expenditure is done from monies borrowed. We are borrowing to fund consumption and not to fund investment.
"Our debt is piling up (70 per cent of GDP), and, we may not be in a position to repay in future. Even before then, any natural or man-made disaster could send us into a default tailspin of government obligations causing intolerable hardship, widespread business failures, and mass unemployment,” he stated.
Source: The Finder
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Massa Good point!!!!! ; some NPP and NDC ministerS HAVE already creamed off the over bloated cost of these vans and SUV's ;these politicians are in business to still from Ghanaians ;don't be fulled by these politicians to go and set up a business or go to school when you can easily go into politics in Ghana without any skills or qualifications and make loads of money through procurement of cars and cream off the profit; ALL THESE POLITICIANS ARE THE SAME ***barred word*** MINDED THEFFS !!!! BESIDES WHO TOLD YOU NANA ADDO IS AN HONEST MAN !!!!; FORGET IT !!!!!' HE IS THE KING OF LIES ;A BIG LIAR A THIFF AND ANOTHER POLITICAL CRIMINAL BANDIDO .
Ghana’s debtto GDP is 74%! Anyone who tells you it’s dropped from 70 to 69 or whatever is a liar. Only ofori atta can lie like that. Some people are so gullible. Ofori atta knows this. That’s why he goofs with such confidence.
The man is saying the truth......stop buying those SUVs......and invest the money you borrowed into productive ventures.......Government paying should be done Judiciously.....pay government workers according to their productive.......nurses lazy around.......teaches vacate their classes to go do their own stuffs.....every penny paid to government workers should have been earned.......WHY DID NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION AUTHORITY.....went for new pickups whiles.....the previously used ones are all parked in some yard......I SAW IT WITH MY EYE.....NUMEROUS NISSAN PICKUPS PARKED......AMBULANCES THAT ATTA BOUGHT VOLKSWAGEN......has all been abandoned LACK OF MAINTENANCE.......NEW ONES WILL BE BOUGHT WITH LOANS.....AND THEN IT GOES ON LOAN...... .GHANA SHOULD BURN ONE DAY...
Nurses that are now doing national service has been employed. Why won't these NPP guys agree that things are just not working.
Drop this vain and unhealthy advice into the dust bin . why are Ndc people don't wish Ghanaians to be relieved of burdened taxes Why For God's sake what evil has Ghanaians done to Ndc . May God help Npp to prosper as they look for a way to develop Ghana devoid of laying heavy burdens on Ghanaians God bless our Nation Ghana
we don't need extra taxes to burden the citizenry, you can go to hel11l thompson.
Does this Thompson guy read and research at all????? Why are Ghanaians so lazy to read. Does Thompson know debt to GDP has dropped from the 70% handed over to the NPP by the Mahama administration to 69%?? Does he know our foreign reserve has increased tremendously? Does he know Ghana has settled most of its domestic debts and that most banks that nearly crippled under the Mahama administration due to heavy debt owed by govt have been paid and that has relieved most banks and are now operative? Does he know that the current govt is up to date on his statutory payment obligations?? Does he know that the current govt has employed almost all nurses, teachers and agric extension officers, especially those who graduated between 2013-2016??? The current govt is making sure that social interventions are active and working to relieve the masses and then start massive physical infrastructure.