Alex Kombat of the GRA says the delay in passing the bill is causing a health burden and affecting the revenue target of GHC 105 billion in the 2023 budget statement
The assistant commissioner for research and policy at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Alex Kombat, has called on Parliament to speed up the passage of the Excise Duty Amendment bill to save lives and raise revenue.
He said the delay in passing the bill is causing a health burden and affecting the revenue target of GHC 105 billion in the 2023 budget statement.
Kombat made the call at a news conference organised by 3 civil society organisations – the Vision for Alternative Development (VALD-Ghana), Tax Justice Coalition and Jaishi Youth Initiative in Accra.
He mentioned tobacco, alcoholic beverages, spirits (Akpeteshie), carbonated drinks and bottled water as products that attract excise taxes in Ghana.
“Alcohol consumption is considered the leading cause of deaths in Ghana with over 200 health conditions linked to harmful alcohol use. In fact, every day someone dies of alcohol related diseases in the country. Diabetes related deaths are about 3.4% of total deaths,” he stated.
He said generally, people continue to consume these harmful products because they are not expensive enough. He stated, “so government/GRA has seen the need to put taxes on them to increase their prices to deter people from consuming them in large quantities.
“In fact, over the years, GRA has used excise taxes, customs duties, value-added tax (VAT), national health insurance levy (NHIL), among others at the entry points and at domestic front to discourage consumption of these products.
“However, the needed revenues are not being derived. Also, the needed impact on consumption of the products were not achieved, hence the need to revise the tax rates of some of the products, for example tobacco, water, carbonated drinks/sugar sweetened beverages, spirits (Akpeteshie) and alcoholic beverages and the rest.”
Kombat added that the GRA found the news conference timely and that it is in full support of the bill, stating that “it is our hope that the tobacco mixed regime will rake in the needed