The new taxes introduced by government in the 2021 budget statement are to take effect today.
These include the Energy Sector recovery Levy, Sanitation Levy, National Health Insurance Levy and the Financial Sector Clean-up Tax. The new tax measures are expected to rake in about 2.9 billion Ghana cedis to help fund the 2021 budget and policies being pursued by government programmes including the Free SHS, Planting for Food and Jobs, School feeding programme among others.
However, even though government is expected to spend about 113 billion Ghana cedis in the 2021 fiscal year, revenues to be raised through taxes and grants within the year is projected at 72.5 billion Ghana cedis representing 16.7 GDP a situation which is alarming.
With the increasing public debt and narrowing fiscal space, tax experts have advised government to look within to raise resources to fund the budget instead of borrowing due to the revenue shortfall.
As a result, the Ghana Importers and Exporters Association has urged the public to brace themselves for an increase in prices of food and services as well as fuel in the next couple of days because of the implementation of the new taxes.
Also, the General Secretary of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union Godfred Adogma has noted that the Union is yet to decide on new fares.
