Bill to coordinate tax incentives in Ghana – Ghana Revenue Authority
Government to embark on public sensitisation of Tax Exemptions Bill – Kwaku Kwarteng
Chairman of the Finance Committee in Parliament, Kwaku Kwarteng, has disclosed that the House will pass the Tax Exemptions Bill in July this year.
This comes after the Bill was recently withdrawn from Parliament for the Ministry of Finance to make some revisions.
But Kwaku Kwarteng says the much-anticipated Bill will be presented before the House and passed next month.
In an interaction with Accra-based Asaase Radio, the Obuasi West lawmaker said the Tax Exemptions Bill, when passed, will help improve the tax regime in the country.
“Investors just want stability in our tax regime. I don’t think a lack of exemptions will hurt investor confidence in our economy. The Tax Exemptions Bill is not really too keen to grant exemptions as a way of promoting local content. We can use other instruments to do that if we want to,” Asaaseradio.com quoted the Chairman of the Finance Committee.
He added, “Generally, the principle is that, whenever we can stop the exemptions, we do. I’m just waiting for it to be passed into law then the proper education will start.”
Kwaku Kwarteng, who believes the Bill will help seal leakages in the tax revenue system, said the government will embark on a series of public sensitisation programmes after its passage into law.
“What we have tried to discourage is use tax exemptions to promote local content. Once the Tax Exemptions Bill is passed, there will be a lot of education on it,” Kwaku Kwarteng said.
The Tax Exemptions Bill was earlier laid before parliament in 2019 but failed to pass.
In November 2021, the bill was yet again laid before the House but barely made headway into the passage until it was recently withdrawn for revisions.
The Bill is now set to be tabled before Parliament in July this year before it can be passed into law.
The purpose of the bill is to streamline the tax exemption regime in the country to help maximize the government's revenue mobilisation efforts.
Meanwhile, according to the Institute of Economic Affairs, Ghana loses over GH¢5 billion every year through tax exemptions alone.
MA/BOG
Kwaku Kwarteng, Chairman of the Finance Committee in Parliament