‘Desperate’ Mahama now taxing cutlasses, condoms - Bawumia

The running-mate of the flagbearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has accused the government of undermining economic growth by overburdening businesses with taxes.

Speaking on Accra-based Joy FM on Tuesday, Dr Bawumia said the government had mismanaged the economy to a point where it had to rely desperately on raising taxes to generate revenue.

He said: “You have a government where you have cutlasses being taxed; condoms being taxed…. When you become desperate, this is what happens; and when you mismanage the economy into this hole then, anything sounds great to you. You don’t have any option and this is the problem.

“Anything that is taxable and that can feasibly be taxed, they are trying to impose tax on them. All of these are hurting the economy and therefore you are not going to get the growth, and when you don’t get the growth, you will not get the revenue, and when you don’t get the revenue, you go back to increasing taxes to get the revenue, and then you are in a cyclical downward spiral. So they have it wrong and we’ll change that particular policy.”

Dr Bawumia’s comments come at a time that hundreds of unionised traders in Accra are on a three-day strike over tax and tariff hikes, which they say are crippling their businesses.

The traders are also not happy with the ECOWAS Common External Tariff which took effect in  February, and have consequently closed down shops in the Central Business District of the capital.

The tariff seeks to promote the creation of a common market and open up the region for intra-Africa trade.

The Ghana Union of Traders’ Association (GUTA), Food and Beverages Importers Association, Ghana Automobile Distributors Association (GADA), Importers and Exporters Association of Ghana, Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF), Freight Forwarders Association and the Customs Brokers Association of Ghana are the unions taking part in the industrial action.