President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced government's decision to cut down the expenditure of ministries, departments and agencies by 20 percent.
This, he said, was a way to contribute towards the recovery of the economy from the shocks of the global pandemic - coronavirus.
The move, President Akufo-Addo furthered will help government save some money.
“We have to make concerted efforts as partners to hasten our recovery from COVID-19 by finding intelligent ways of bringing everyone on board to contribute their quota no matter what,” he said.
“Government on its part is implementing a policy of cutting the budgets of ministries, departments and agencies by 20% this year as its contribution,” he added.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made this known while speaking at the 2022 National Labour Conference at Kwahu in the Eastern Region on Monday, February 28, 2022.
He indicated that it's about time Ghanaians are fully involved in the payment of taxes, hence, the introduction of a tax on all electronic transactions, popularly known as the E-Levy.
“We cannot continue to allow less than 10%, specifically 7.8%, that is, 2.4 million people of the population to carry the direct tax burden of 30.8 million people. We must provide an opportunity for every Ghanaian to contribute towards nation building,” President Akufo-Addo stated.
But the announcement of the E-Levy in the 2022 budget has been fraught with several controversies, with many Ghanaians, including the Minority in Parliament kicking against it.
The E-Levy bill was subsequently withdrawn from parliament and currently, the E-Levy has been reviewed downwards to 1.5% from 1.75%.
The bill is yet to be re-laid before parliament after its withdrawal.
Meanwhile, government through the information ministry is organising town hall meetings to discuss the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy).
The exercise will also give government feedback on reactions from citizens on the proposed levy and how best to implement it.
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has also warned of dire consequences for the Ghanaian economy if the E-Levy is not passed.
Ken Ofori-Atta urged Ghanaians to support the implementation of the E-Levy.
Source: ghannaweb.com
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
Common sense. Basic human sense at play.
Hahahaaaa, even with these cuts some MDA's will still not get a pesewa for the whole year. Last year 2021 some government departments were given warrants alright but they didn't get a pesewa for the wholeyear. There are heads of departments who use their salaries to buy electricity for their offices, others are using 'takashi ' to get money from clients through unorthodox means. During the confirmation of MMDCEs some assemblies borrowed from contractors to enable them pay T&T to assembly members who came for the confirmation. Currently some assemblies cannot hold sub-committee meetings because they is no money to pay them T&T and sitting allowances and yet these meetings are mandatory. What is even more amazing is that the GRA will come out to say they have exceeded their target for the year, question, how are the monies to be collected as taxes determined such that they exceed their targets and yet still government can't release funds for its agencies to perform their mandate. I thought if you ask someone to collect GHC 10,000.00 . you know with the GHC 10,000.00 you will be able to fund all budgeted expenditures, now they go ahead to collect more and yet we can't even fund minor expenditures. How will you convince a lay man on this issue. When kufour came in 2001 as the president, he said there was no money so he decided to go for HIPC with it's attendant reliefs thus he had enough space to think and we all saw his achievements. Akuffo Addo should also look for something and join to ease the suffering of Ghanaians . He can't be traveling every now and then and comes back with nothing.