The Head of the Department of Psychiatry of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Prof. Angela Ofori -Atta, has reiterated the need to pay taxes in order for the country to develop.
She believes that for every nation to develop there is the need for its citizens to contribute through the payment of taxes thus the new electronic- levy proposed by the government must be accepted.
In an interview monitored by ATL FM NEWS on JOY FM on the sidelines of the Volta trade and investment Fair at Ho in the Volta Region, she stated that for the country to grow, all citizens must pay taxes.
“I know that they will like better roads and they will like it when they go to the hospital to get better care, they will like the NHIA to work…and I know that they will like a good Ghana. There is no country that can develop without its citizens contributing.” She said.
The finance minister’s wife revealed that about one-third of her monthly salary goes into taxes however she indicated that, if Ghanaians will make it their core mandate to pay their taxes, it can facilitate developmental growth in the country.
“There’s no country that can develop without its citizens contributing, and there are too many people in Ghana not contributing. So I think when we send money to each other to pay for services that are taxed, pretty soon we will figure a way not to pay income tax because that’s the way the world is going,” she said.
Read also: UCC Dept of Hospitality and Tourism Mgmt reviews Academic Programmes
She further stated that Ghanaians only need to be concerned about the government using the state funds through the new e-levy judiciously.
In her view “…if it is a tax that allows us to create jobs then I think it’s worth it. I think we should really be talking about; how do we ensure that when the taxes get collected, they get into the government chest. Let’s press the government to use it efficiently and judiciously and let’s hold government accountable for jobs and programmes it said it will create.”
However, economist and policy risk analyst, Dr. Theo Acheampong has urged the government to consider lowering the proposed 1.75% e- levy because he believes this levy is very costly hence should be reduced.
He notes that if the rate is reduced to about 0.5% it could help government assess the consumer’s response to e-service transactions.
Source: Emmanuella Ama Gyamfi/ATLFMNEWS
