By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
A former Board Chair of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) under the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo-led government, Prof. Stephen Adei, says the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led administration’s decision to impose Value Added Tax (VAT) on power consumption is counterproductive.
He has, therefore, kicked against the newly introduced VAT on electricity consumption.
Prof. Adei, speaking in an interview with the media explained that implementation of the newly introduced VAT on electricity consumption will worsen the plight of consumers and make businesses uncompetitive.
The former Board Chair of the revenue mobilisation outfit’s comments come on the back of a government directive to the GRA to liaise with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO) to transfer Value Added Tax (VAT) generated from consumers who have exceeded their lifeline power consumption effective January 1, 2024.
Prof. Adei stated that the government’s action is counterproductive and would hurt the country’s already battered economy.
“There’s no doubt at all people will be worse off. You’ll first focus on things that increase production and then that in turn will feed into your taxes. You should be going after the billions of uncollected property taxes and people getting away (inaudible), being exempted, not even the more important ones.
The mines have millions of exemptions and these are the ones we should go after rather than going after the ordinary producer and consumer when it comes to electricity” he charged.
