By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr Kwabena Tahir Hammond, known in political circles as K.T. Hammond, has alleged that the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) leadership on Parliament’s Finance Committee is conspiring with the minority caucus to sabotage approval of the 1D1F tax waivers.
He also accused the leadership of the Trade and Industry Committee of Parliament of frustrating the approval process.
Speaking in an interview with the media shortly after the 2024 edition of the State of the Nation Address delivered by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo yesterday, 27th February 2024 on the floor of Parliament, Mr Hammond expressed concern about the delays in the passage of tax waivers for factories under the government’s flagship program “One District, One Factory policy.”
The Trade and Industry Minister, as usual, took a swipe at the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for opposing anything good for the country coming from his party, the NPP.
“Anything that they perceive will be in the interest of the country and coming from the NPP, their natural instinct is to rise against it. But on this occasion, it is not just the opposition NDC, there are also some elements in the NPP and on the committee’s leadership who are really creating problems and I have been fighting them inside and outside of Parliament to have the tax waivers issue resolved,” he lamented.
But the Ranking Member on the Trade and Industry Committee, and Member of Parliament for Bole, Mr. Yusif Sulemena, dismissed Mr Hammond’s claim, stressing that the minority caucus will not approve any tax waivers that will not benefit the state.
“When we started passing those exemptions, it got to a point where we realised they were abusing them, so we passed what we call the Tax Exemptions Act, and we want him to respect that act.
If we were to go by that act, the exemptions he has brought before us would not pass. There is no need to give any further tax exemptions because of the burden he has brought on Ghanaians when it comes to taxation,” he maintained.
President Akufo-Addo, in his 2024 State of the Nation address, appealed to Parliament to, as a matter of urgency, consider the approval of outstanding tax exemptions stemming from the year 2021 to send positive signals to the business community.
