Adongo rebuffs Bawumia’s economic claims
Sammy Gyamfi calls out Bawumia for ‘intellectual dishonesty’
Randy Abbey, the host of Good Morning Ghana had an exchange with an aide to the Vice President, Dr Kabiru Mahama, on the April 13, 2022 edition of his show.
With the discussion centred on the economic lecture delivered by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia last Thursday, Dr Mahama mounted a spirited defence for some figures put out by the vice president.
In the area of taxes, Dr Kabiru Mahama posited that the vice president gave a comprehensive briefing on how the government has transformed the country from ‘taxation to production”.
According to him, through the removal of tax components on certain items, the government has pulled the brakes on taxation and rather promoted promotion.
Randy Abbey as the host probed the Economic Analyst and Advisor to the Vice President to mention some of the taxes which have been removed by the Akufo-Addo led government.
Dr Mahama stated “I want to give you the list which was abolished. Government abolished the 17% tax on real estate. Government abolished the 17% tax on selected import medicine that are not produced in the country."
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Randy Abbey quickly interjected, contesting Dr Mahama’s claim on the removal taxes with the basis that the taxes have not been abolished but rather certain items have been excluded from the coverage of the tax.
“Dr please hold on. The two you just read are not different taxes. It is VAT at two different times. You are PHD holder and people are watching us. When VAT is imposed, that is the tax and there are items covered by the tax. For example, we just passed E-Levy. The E-Levy is on transactions so let’s assume the E-Levy is on twenty transactions; so if tomorrow you decide to remove E-Levy on those transactions, have you removed E-Levy?”
Dr Mahama retorted “you have and let me explain. When you put VAT on shirts, it becomes a law. The law approves that my VAT is applicable to only shirts. However, if I’m applying the VAT to shoes, I’ve to go back to Parliament. That is treated as a separate tax”.
Randy Abbey made another intervention, submitting that “If you imposed VAT, you’ve imposed a tax. The tax is imposed on a range of items. So, if at a point in time you decide to add or remove two of the times, you’ve not added two taxes or removed two taxes.”
Dr Kabiru Mahama eventually agreed but defended that in the books of the government it has abolished the taxes and will run by that narrative.
