Petra Trust launches ‘Savings Booster’
Petra Trust Company Limited, a trustee company, has introduced a new investment product, “Savings Booster”, to allow people to make long-term savings and benefit from income tax exemption.
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The Managing Director of Petra Trust, Mr kofi Fynn, said unlike other investment products on the market, the Savings Booster required no minimum deposit and helps individuals to boost their savings by allowing them to add what they would have paid as taxes to the government to their savings.
The savings invests in the Petra Opportunity Pension Scheme, a Tier 3 scheme and it is designed to give savers a higher rate than the Treasury bill rate.
At the media launch of the product in Accra, Mr Fynn said Savings Booster was a retail product available to any individual in the country to contribute to. The main difference of this particular product from the others on the market is the tax element.
“We have introduced Savings Booster because we think that Ghanaians deserve it. If you put your money in other savings, it’s coming from your income that has already been taxed but with Savings Booster even before your income is taxed you can make that contribution. So in effect, all the taxes that you would have paid can be added to boost the amount that you contribute and as a result a high return,” he said.
How it works
Savings Booster allows payroll officers to make deductions on behalf of individuals just as it is done for Social Security deductions, thereby, enabling them to save part of their income which would have otherwise gone into paying income tax.
Mr Fynn said it helped provide the much needed mid-to-long term investments required to transform the economy as it contributed to the savings pool of the country.
“Savings Booster provides safe investment and great returns with after-tax returns higher than the yield on the 91-day Treasury Bills. Additional safety is provided by the fact that it invests in a Tier-3 scheme regulated by the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA),” he said.
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Petra Trust
It is a corporate trustee licensed by the NPRA to offer trustee services to both individuals and employers in Ghana.
It administers Tier Two and Tier Three schemes for over 60,000 Ghanaian workers in both formal and informal sector.
The Deputy Managing Director of the company, Mr Chris Hammond, said people who signed on to the Savings Booster had the right to use it as collateral for a mortgage.
“We have taken a lot of time to educate employers and making sure that they understand that it does not create additional burden on them. We are also giving them understanding of the benefits. With the education, we are seeing more companies are willing to do it,” he said.