Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam Constituency in the Central Region has warned the government against introducing anymore taxes.
According to him, additional taxes will be too painful and increase suffering for the people of Ghana and cannot be an option.
In his view, any such taxes may be punitive and lead to socio-political instability, obviously because of the current economic hardship.
“If the government had listened to us in 2021, Ghana could have remedied the situation but unfortunately they refused to act and the fiscal crises has escalated” he said.
Speaking at a lecture on Ghana’s Economy, the NDC’s ranking Member on Finance stated that the NPP government is responsible for 80% of Ghana’s total public debt since Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s government.
This, he insists means the NPP administration has been the worst borrowing government in only 6 years with very little to show.
He said the NPP has successfully driven Ghana into the ditch by making its debt highly unsustainable to a point of no return.
“Ghana has been made poorer under this administration. COCOBOD has accumulated over GH¢14 billion in cocoa bills (loans), ECG owes IPPs over GH¢12 billion, almost every single State Owned-Enterprise is insolvent. The situation is scary and worrying” he noted.
According to Mr. Forson, currently, the government owes contractors and suppliers about GHS100billion.
This ineptitude and intransigence has occasioned loss of confidence in the Ghanaian economy by the investor community adding that “businesses are moving from Ghana to Ivory Coast and other neighboring countries, companies are shutting down and lay-offs are becoming a daily routine with frequent and devastating downgrades by rating agencies”.
Dr. Forson explained that even though, public debt levels have risen across some countries, the capacity to live with such debt levels varies considerably from country to country and that the ability to repay is not the same.
The NDC Ranking Member of Finance claimed that the government spent GHS17 billion on compensation of employees (wages & salaries) alone between January and June this year 2022 indicating that “This means that the government borrowed to pay for wages & salaries between Jan and June of 2022”.
“Ghana’s half year total tax revenue of GHS30 billion (Jan-Jun 2022) was certainly not enough to pay for our debt service obligation and wages & salaries amounting to GHS43.1 billion(GHS26.1b+GHS17b)” Mr. Forson noted.
source mypublisher24.com
