By Peter Agengre
The Upper East Regional Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Abdallah Salifu, says he is not impressed with the government’s mid-year review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy presented on the floor of Parliament.
Mr. Salifu opined that the budget did not offer any better alternative to addressing the economic challenges facing the country. He cited the continuous taxation of goods and services and wished the taxes on sanitary pads were scrapped.
“Today, a pack of sanitary pad can go for as high as GHc50.00 and the least is GHc20.00 depending on the type you’re buying. You can imagine how many people can afford it. This has to do with the tax component on it. So I was thinking that if for nothing at all he wants to still leave the taxes on everything, but on sanitary pad he should have taken that one out,” Mr. Salifu explained.
In Ken Ofori Atta’s mid-year budget review in Parliament, he announced that government will not ask Parliament for any additional money to run the country. According to him, there has been some significant progress in non-oil tax revenue collection within the year.
“For the first time in six months, we continue to make progress to exceed our non-oil revenue targets for the year. We have seen improvements in non-oil tax revenue collection despite some noticeable shortfalls,” Ken Ofori-Atta clears.
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But the Upper East Regional Communication Officer believes that the ordinary Ghanaian is in distress.
“This government, all that they know, is increasing taxes on every commodity in this country. And that is why prices of goods and services keep increasing each and every day,” Mr. Salifu screamed.