Former Deputy Minister of Finance, Kwaku Kwarteng, has cautioned government cannot afford to forgo any tax or levy in the 2022 budget because it will be insensitive to the economy and will disrupt the path to recovery.
According to him, the country just came from the year 2020 during which the revenue shortfall hit GH¢14 billion because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the government was compelled to find money to finance unplanned expenditures such as the creation of isolation centres and the acquisition of vaccines among others.
What is needed, he said, is a strategy that would help the government to recover the financial losses that were made into those expenditures that were intended to save lives from the disease.
Kwaku Kwarteng gave the warning in Parliament on Wednesday in response to a call by MP for Bole Bamboi to the government to remove some levies on imported clinker in the 2022 budget.
In a statement read on the floor of the House, Yusif Sulemana indicated that the impact of extreme cement price increases on the construction industry and individuals has become unbearable and profound.
He cautioned Ghana would have a long way to go to address the current infrastructure gap if cement, a major component in construction becomes too expensive to buy.
The current rate of price increases, he said, is becoming a crisis and, therefore, requires immediate response from the government.
Hon. Kwaku Kwarteng, however, argued that Parliament in the middle of the pandemic last year gave the government approval to spend money it did not even have in order to save lives
According to him, the important question people should be asking the government is the strategies that would be implemented to recover the huge deficit.
He said, “That is the question we should be asking because if we don’t do that and the economic challenges deteriorate and the cedi falls, the vulnerable and the poor will suffer badly and the political leaders responsible for those positions would have to pay the price to God.”
“Let nobody suggest that government. At this time when government revenues and the cedi should be protected, we should not be calling for taxes to be removed.”
“I would be extremely disappointed if in the coming budget the government comes to say in spite of the approval this House has given them to spend money that Ghana does have, they are going to remove some taxes.”
“Is this how the government wants to recover the economy, by giving tax reliefs? What kind of economic management will that be? We will be setting this economy on a path that will eventually hit the poor,” he warned.
The former Deputy Minister noted that political expediency is comfortable and would be politically comfortable for the government to say it has removed some taxes for Ghanaians to applaud and cheer.
He, however, warned the consequences for the Cedi and the economy would be such that the poor and the vulnerable will pay a painful price for such a political move.
Source: Mypublisher24.com/Osumanu Al-Hassan