Economist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Ebo Turkson has lauded government for abolishing some taxes that are considered nuisance and a disincentive to private sector growth.
Dr. Turkson however called for a regulation on the move to abolish duties on spare parts to allow only new spare parts into the country.
Presenting the budget in parliament yesterday, Finance Minister , Ken Ofori-Atta announced that government has abolished a number of taxes including, the 1% Special Import Levy, 17.5% VAT/NHIL on financial services,17.5% VAT/NHIL on selected imported medicines that are not produced locally, 17.5% VAT/NHIL on domestic airline tickets and Duty on Imported spare parts, among others.
But speaking to Citi Business News on the impact of the move, Dr. Tuckson appealed to government to insist that spare parts that are imported are not overused ones. “The removal of the tax on financial services and some of the import duties on raw materials are good.
But I think with the spare parts I want to clarify that it should be new spare parts not overused spare parts. That policy is a good idea but it should come with a regulation,” he stressed.
He suggested that even though the scraping of the import duty on spare parts is good, it must be checked to protect the country from becoming a dumping site of overused spare parts.
Touching on the general reduction of taxes, Dr. Tuckson stated that the private sector, particularly the financial sector will take advantage to expand their operations, hence create jobs.
He was of the view that the amount of revenue that will be lost through the abolishing will be insignificant.
“If you look at the amount of taxes that Ghana will lose when some of these taxes are abolished it is insignificant.
What is most important and critical is the need to get the private sector to have a conducive environment to have confidence to invest,” he said.
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