GUTA tells NPP gov’t: For businesses to thrive, reduce taxes.

The Ghana Union of Traders (GUTA) expects the incoming New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to instantly review the current tax regime when official sworn in January 2017.

The NPP, during their campaign before the just ended December 7 polls , promised to scrap several taxes and decrease others to permit businesses to have the space to expand and employ more workers.

Speaking on Class FM, GUTA spokesperson Joseph Paddy, said: “Issues that came up throughout their campaigning was the proposals we gave to them and that is what we expect from them, that is, we need the dollar to come down and be pegged equal to the cedi. The rate at which the dollar was appreciating against the cedi was something that was not good to write home about” he recalled.

He also emphasized that “We also said the import duties were too high: you buy an item for about two dollars and you pay import duty of about four dollars, so if you import goods of about $100,000, you’re paying duty of about $50,000, which we think no businessman can grow with this policy that is in place.”

Mr. Joseph Paddy made known that “the expectations of businessmen is very high and then we pray and hope that the new government will meet the demands and the needs of businessmen because when we grow, government grows, because government does not do business; government depends on the private sector. So, government should give us good policies to grow and when we grow he will realize his revenues and they can develop the country, so that’s what we are expecting from government”.

Mr. Joseph Paddy also stated that one amongst the numerous ways of helping businesses to thrive in the Ghana is to “reduce taxes”.
“That’s what we’ve been singing and drumming and have been asking the former government to do. Like the Special Levy – it’s not necessary, take it off, it’s not helping our businesses.”