H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo has for the first time in an interview this year on BBC spoken extensively on the economic situation of the country including the controversial E-Levy which was passed last week.
INFLATION, COST OF FUEL AND CEDI DEPRECIATION
On the issue of rising inflation, the president explained that, it’s a global phenomenon which was characterized by the Covid-19 pandemic and Ghana is no exception to this.
On the depreciation of the cedi against the major currencies like the dollar, the president posited that, it is being dealt with and the cedi has started gaining strength against the dollar and he expects the trend to continue..
The president vehemently disagreed with the interview who suggested that the Ghanaian economy will not be the best destination to put his money if he were a business man as a result of the ever sky rocketing fuel prices.
The president pointed out that the price hike in fuel prices wasn’t only peculiar Ghana and asked the interviewer if Britain will be his preferred economy to invest having been hit by the highest cost of living in 30 years according to the president..
He again opined that the world was going through a difficult times and there’s no country that has not suffered some form of shocks as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the war currently going on between Ukraine and Russia.
E-LEVY
In response to the E-Levy, which the interview described as a stealth tax of 1.5 percent which is imposed on an already impoverished citizens, and as well double taxation, the president explained that, the telecommunication sector is a huge economy which they sort to leverage on to capture a lot more people into the tax net who hither to do not pay tax.
He added, Ghana in the west Africa subregion has a very low tax to GDP of about 13% when it peers are doing 18% on the average.
When the president’s attention was drawn to the fact that there could be other innovative ways of bringing in more revenue to the government and not overburden Ghanaians, H.E Akuffo Addo he strongly pointed out that he strongly believe the E-Levy is the best way to go.
He also disagreed Ghanaians are impoverished contrary to a suggestion by the BBC interviewer.
According to him, the E-Levy policy was to tax the industry and on transactions of which a lot of values are being created. To him, Ghana is not the only country embarking on E-Levy and that other sister countries in the Africa subregion is doing similar.
He believes people generally do not like paying taxes and that it is only normal for a push back on the introduction of such tax measures.
The president finally assured that, just like many countries which was hard hit by the global pandemic, measures put in place are yielding results and the economy is expected to bounce back stronger.
H.E President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo is currently in London after attending a religious activities at the United States of America.
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