Call for partnership between private sector and academia

The Managing Director (MD) of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, has called for a collaborative efforts between the private sector and academia in order to find a solution to help businesses in the country to thrive.

He said it was crucial for the country to emulate the Japanese example where academia, businesses, bureaucrats and politicians collaborate in order to find solutions based on the context of the challenges affecting their operations.

Mr Ashigbey said this in his welcome address at the Graphic Business-Stanbic Bank Breakfast meeting which was organised on the theme: “The new Tax Law, its implications for the economy and businesses” on May 31, 2016 in Accra.

“The effect of this collaboration is that between 1989 and 2012, the system has run without destruction. This is a testimony to the strength of the Japanese systems and the fact that power resides in the people and they also have a strong public system in place,” he said.  

Focusing on the Japanese example, he said the Japanese had a national development model that drove the entire nation and around which they had built uncertainty before the Second World War.

He said for Ghana to build that consensus it was important for the citizenry to move out of their political shell and remove unbridled partisan political lenses.

“This is very important because the common enemy the country has is disease, poverty, and ignoranCE, and these do not have party colours,” the MD stressed.

Explaining further, he said if the opposition party did not help in finding solutions to the challenges, by the time it comeS to power the situation would be so bad that it may not be able to fulfill the promises it made to the electorate. If the ruling party also played politics with the issues it would not be able meet the promises it made. 

He also said one of the challenges he had seen in the Tax system was how to expand the tax net and rope in a lot of people in the informal sector into the direct tax net and reduce the burden on the few who were under the tax regime.

Income Tax Act

The Deputy Commissioner in charge of Policy and Programmes, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Mr Edward Gyamerah for his part said the new Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 596) was user friendly compared to the old Act 592.

“All over the world taxation is a sovereign issue and in Ghana it represents the largest source of the government revenue, both at the national and local levels. 

It may be recalled that Ghana acquired a lower middle income status in 2010 with pride, this also has its implications,” he said. 

He said it was very crucial for the business community to comply with the new tax regime to help the Ghana Revenue Authority to serve them better.

Touching on the forum, he said programmes such as the Graphic Business-Stanbic Bank Breakfast meeting would help the GRA to explain issues relating to the new tax regime.

Breakfast meeting 

The breakfast meeting, which is an initiative of the Graphic Communications Group and the bank, is a series of dialogues that feature selected topics and is aimed at influencing government policies in favour of businesses.

It brought together players in the private sector, policy makers and people from the government to deliberate on how to improve business confidence to support local business.

The meeting was chaired by Professor Kwame Boasiako Omane-Antwi, the Board Chairman of the GCGL. Other speakers Mr Seth Terpker, the Minister of Finance, Mr Abdallah Ali Nakyea, a Tax Consultant, and Mr Alhassan Andani, Managing Director of Stanbic Bank.