New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Obuasi West Constituency, Kwaku Kwarteng, says the government’s aim of abolition and reducing some taxes is to help businesses expand and employ more.
According to him, the government noticed the challenges most businesses suffer, and has taken the action to ensure that they do not collapse or remain stagnant, but grow to augment government’s efforts in providing more jobs.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, the Obuasi West legislator discounted claims that the removal of the removal of some import duties will promote the influx of inferior goods into the country.
He noted that, the government has put in place efficient mechanisms to raise funds to finance all the policies and programmes it announced in the 2017 budget statement.
The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori Atta on the floor of Parliament on Thursday [March 2, 2017, announced about twelve taxes that have been abolished and a few others reviewed downwards.
Most of the taxes directly affect private businesses in sectors such as finance, real estate, trade, import and export.
He also announced the government’s commitment to roll out key programmes such as the one-district one-factory and one village one-dam this year.
Some members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), have cast doubt over about the ability of the government to achieve these programmes, but Mr Kwarteng says the government will realign its finances to achieve the desired results.
“The abolishing of special import duty on spare parts is designed to help businesses. If you want the businesses to grow, we need to remove their burden. All the tax removals that we have done, the stimulus package for industries that are dying, are all intended to boost our ability to produce and export. That will happen. We have rolled out these interventions and we are inviting the Ghanaian public to support us,” he said.
A former Deputy Minister of Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson, has described the 2017 budget statement and economic policy presented before parliament as deceptive and populist.
According to him, the budget does not fit into the country’s medium-term objectives and will lead the country into difficult times.
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