The 2019 and 2020 Retirees of the University of Cape Coast have registered their displeasure towards management of the university over what they describe as undue deduction from their end of service benefits.
According to them in a resolution they have issued, on 29th July, 2019 when the year’s retirees were about to exit the University of Cape Coast from active service, the Pro-Vice Chancellor announced to a gathering of the retirees at the medical Auditorium that there is a proposal from the Ghana Revenue Authority to deduct tax from the years’ retirees’ End of Service benefit.
This they indicated did not go well with the 2019 retirees but the Pro-Vice Chancellor and the unions agreed to sit down with the GRA to see to the waiving off the tax.
However, it is said that the 2019 retirees went home without the payment of the End of Service benefit.
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In order to resolve this, a decision was taken at a meeting of Vice Chancellors that, 10 percent should be deducted from the benefits and ninety percent paid to the retirees but the Management of the University of Cape Coast are said to have issued a letter indicating that 17 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent would be deducted from the benefits of the Junior Staff, Senior Staff and the Senior Members respectively.
In response to the approach used for the tax deductions, the 2019 and 2020 retirees in their resolution stated they are not happy about these tax deductions as such deduction were not made from their predecessors.
They said “we do not understand why after serving our nation actively for various numbers of years as active and consistent payers we should pay another tax at the end of our service when we are terminally leaving active service.”
Addressing the media yesterday, Secretary to the group, Mr. Peter Aubyn said they want management to reverse any form of deduction taken from their end of service benefit in the form of taxes to reduce the financial burden some members are going through.
“We the 2019 and 2020 retirees demand strongly that our monies deducted as tax should be paid back to us without delay. If some companies were given tax exemptions in Ghana, then tax paying workers like us also deserve tax exemptions in our terminally End of Service Benefits. We give the University of Cape Coast management two weeks to respond to our demands. Management should attach utmost importance and urgency to our demands, failure of which may push us to other areas the University may not find pleasant.”
Meanwhile, Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Johnson Nyarko Boampong has assured the group of the university’s readiness to give the needed and deserved attention to their grievances.
Source: Rosemond Asmah and Ebenezer Edu Asare/ATLFMNEWS
