The Tax Justice Coalition (TJC) has expressed confidence the Tax Exemption Bill 2021 when passed into an Act will serve its purpose because it contains provisions that can trigger monitoring of decisions taken in relation to granting tax exemptions to companies.
According to the Coalition, the fact that the Bill has made provisions for accountability by making the Finance Minister and the Commissioner accountable has made an effective implementation a reality.
Steering Committee Member of TJC, Benedict Doh, disclosed this in an interview on Monday at a one day workshop organized for members of the Parliamentary Corp to promote passage of the Exemptions bill in Ghana.
The programme was on the theme: ‘Sustainable financing of Ghana’s Development: Domestic revenue mobilization and the Exemptions Bill in Ghana.’
The Coalition, he said, does not foresee a situation where implementation of the Act will be fraught with challenges because the Bill has provided mitigation measures for such situations.
Mr. Doh indicated that the Minister of Finance, for instance, is charged by the Bill to present annual reports as part of the national budget presentation to Parliament.
He said, “With this in place, there is no way the Minister will go to Parliament and give his budget statement and would not be compelled to give a report on the tax exemptions.”
“The Bill insulates that provision so much that it is clear that presenting the tax exemption report will become a part and parcel of the presentation of the national budget.”
According to him, the Bill has taken preventive measures against arbitral granting of tax exemptions by just any Minister or persons with connection to power considering the various provisions as it gives clear guidelines on how exemptions should be granted and by who.
“The Bill gives power to the Minister of Finance to give approval and then he has the responsibility to take such exemptions in terms of request to Cabinet for consent before it is moved to Parliament for approval.”
“If you look at the preventive approach to ensuring that exemptions are not just granted arbitrarily and if you look at the content of the Bill, it is clear that any other law that is inconsistent with the provisions of this current Exemption Bill is considered void,” he stated.
The Exemptions Bill is a bill proposed by the government through the Ministry of Finance to bring all incentives, exemptions, reliefs and other tax regimes under a single coordinating point to ensure effective monitoring and better oversight of all the incentives and exemptions regimes that has been granted.
Source: Mypublisher24.com