Lawyer and Communication strategist, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has taken a dig at Ghanaian returnees complaining about the government overtaxing Ghanaians.
According to him, As Ghanaians living abroad or who used to live and work abroad for years, they are better positioned to understand the need for paying taxes and argued these same people never complained while living broad
“One thing I don’t miss living abroad and for leaving abroad is the constant dread from returning from work daily to fresh letters, all demanding one payment or the other from me.”
“Final Notice” printed in red! You park your car, wahala with a traffic warden. You come home to a fine for apparently being captured by a street camera for some traffic offence of which you were not even aware!”
In a post on his Facebook Wall, Gabby admitted no one likes to pay taxes and stressed everybody cares that taxes are used properly and must demand greater transparency and the Government must be happy to throw more light.
He argued that no one can say Ghana’s taxes are not being put to work because the government worked for people to face COVID in 2020, worked when over 21 billion cedis was used to protect funds of millions of depositors and helping to rebuild the financial sector.
According to him, no government has done more to support factories, improve education and health, equip the security agencies and in helping the young unemployed to be gainfully employed than the Akufo-Addo administration.
“All that the President is asking for is for Ghanaians to give more so that he can do much more for them,” he wrote:
Read the text of the post below:
I’ve read a few comments from some Ghanaians living abroad or who used to live and work abroad for years and happily so, who are today complaining that the Ghana government is overtaxing the people.
One thing I don’t miss living abroad and for leaving abroad is the constant dread from returning from work daily to fresh letters, all demanding one payment or the other from me. “Final Notice” printed in red! You park your car, wahala with a traffic warden. You come home to a fine for apparently being captured by a street camera for some traffic offence of which you were not even aware!
In America, debt to GDP ratio is over 130%, but the government is not choking on debt servicing because they raise enough revenues. UK has a debt to GDP ratio of some 108%, higher than Ghana’s, which is around 80%. But, the British government uses less than 10% of revenues raised to service interest payments and it is because their tax to GDP ratio is around 32% and not 13% like here.
You live in the USA where 40% of Americans spend half of their income servicing personal debt and where you pay 8 to 10 different taxes on top of your income taxes. And, yet, you have not once written to your Governor or Senator for your state to protest against taxes. But you are on Facebook urging Ghanaians not to pay e-levy!
In the foreign country where you live(d), you pay:
- Income tax
- Property tax
- State tax
- County tax
- City tax
- Federal tax
- Ad Valorem tax
- Car tag tax
- Sales tax
- Gift tax
And even special purpose tax when they want to improve schools, for instance.
You have moved back to Ghana and now living in your OWN COUNTRY comfortably, paying little or NO TAXES and constantly bashing the government for not doing enough and also not widening its tax net. Meanwhile, there is a new attempt to widen the net, e-levy, your response is, predictably, to kick against it and threaten Government.
Truth is no one likes to pay taxes. We all care that our taxes are used properly. We must demand greater transparency and Government must be happy to throw more light. But, no one can also say that our taxes are not being put to work. They worked for us to face COVID in 2020, they worked for us when over 21 billion cedis was used to protect funds of millions of depositors and helping to rebuild the financial sector.
They work for us when our children don’t pay fees in public schools from kindergarten through to university where loans are now given without a guarantor. Indeed, I believe Ghana is the only country where majority of secondary students are borders and don’t also pay for the privilege. Our taxes work for us by keeping us safe with more money spent on security than ever. They help to give us more good roads than ever in our country’s history. Your taxes have kept electricity bills low for four years and lower than what they were six years ago!
We must demand greater transparency in how our taxes are used for sure. But, no government in our history has spent more on social interventions to help the masses than this Government. No government has spent more on farmers, nurses, teachers, students, public sector workers and the physically challenged than the current administration. No government has done more to support factories, improve education and health, equip the security agencies and in helping the young unemployed to be gainfully employed than the Akufo-Addo administration. All that the President is asking for is for Ghanaians to give more so that he can do much more for them.
