Dr. Joseph Obeng, the president of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has expressed his disappointment in the government over the passage of the three new tax laws.
His comment follows the announcement by the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah that the president has assented to the three new tax bills passed by Parliament on March 31, 2023.
These new taxes include the Excise Duty Amendment Bill 2022, the Growth and Sustainability Levy Bill 2022 and the Income Tax Amendment Bill 2022.
According to Dr. Obeng, GUTA and all other business communities in the country have been disrespected by the government. GUTA had earlier on opposed the passage of these new bills because they believed this will only collapse so many local businesses.
Dr. Obeng has stated that such thing has never happened before that a tax will be introduced without the knowledge of the business community in the country.
“We have been disregarded, the business community,’’ he stated in an interview on Class FM monitored by 1Family Radio.
He explained that normally, when the government wants to introduce a new tax, all stakeholders are invited on board and they reach a consensus before the bill is passed but this government has imposed a new tax on Ghanaians despite their objection.
“The norm has been that if the government wants to introduce a new tax, we all sit down, reach an agreement and then accept it as Ghanaians but you just don’t go ahead and impose tax on Ghanaians like it has been done now. It very inappropriate.”
“We are being sent to the slaughterhouse and somebody must talk,’’ the businessman stressed.
“This is totally unacceptable. This is unfair to us. We have sent a petition and we expect a reply but we haven’t gotten any reply yet. What sort of democracy is the country practicing?’’ he asked.
Source: 1Familyradio
