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Some business owners in Kumasi have urged the government to implement more environmentally friendly and business-friendly tax laws that will aid in the government’s optimal revenue mobilization while encouraging corporate expansion.
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).
According to him, the current system, in which taxes are levied on each and every item distributed, drives up prices to a point where customers cannot afford them.
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.
Credit: Graphic Online
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