He claims that if organised labour had not protested, the government would not have repealed the unpopular tax.
he said ” H.E John Mahama had given an indication that it does not make sense that Akufo-Addo, the man who led Kumepreko demonstration against the imposition of VAT has not only raised the VAT rate but has gone further to impose VAT on electricity consumption.
“Consistent with the dishonest character of this Bawumia/Akufo-Addo administration immediately organized labour said they were going to protest, government’s assigns and hypemen decided to go on this trajectory by saying that they were going to drop it.
“Organized Labour, I want to put before you today that this government is so dishonest that the only reason why they want to drop this 15 percent ECG VAT is simply because of the election ahead and that should you make the mistake of voting for them to remain in power they will go back for this 15 % VAT. This is a government that said in the midst of Covid 19 that they were giving us free water, free electricity, immediately they got elected in 2020 they imposed Covid levy on us. ”
Cabinet has decided to remove the contentious 15% VAT on energy, subject to additional discussions with the International Monetary Fund.
If the levy was not repealed, organised labour threatened widespread strikes.
The government justified the levy as a way to collect income in order to pay off the energy sector’s debt and improve the sector’s profitability.
However, TV3 reports that the administration may have been forced to backtrack owing to increasing pressure from Labour and other stakeholders. A rally against the legislation is scheduled for February 13 at the Trade Union Congress.
There have also been bipartisan calls to eliminate the tax. National Democratic Congress candidate John Mahama claimed it will exacerbate Ghanaians’ woes.
Henry Nana Boakye, National Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), is said to have stated that the tax should be repealed because, among other things, it was making the government unpopular during an election year. He clarified that this was the party’s position.
The government must now engage the IMF in areas of expenditure that need to be reformed within the existing budget to ensure that eliminating the tax does not result in a massive revenue deficit that throws the budget out of balance.
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