NPP will not tax pensions, allowances — Bawumia
The vice-presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for this year’s election, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has disclosed that a future NPP government will review the Income Tax Act 2015 to abolish the taxes on pensions and allowances.
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“The NPP, once elected, will immediately review the various taxes that have burdened the Ghanaian people and the private sector,” he declared.
NPP vision
According to Dr Bawumia, the NPP, under Nana Akufo-Addo, has a significantly different vision which does not only focus on taxation but on productivity, jobs and the welfare of the people.
Dr Bawumia made these comments to students and lecturers of the E.P. College of Education, Amedzofe, in the Volta-region last Wednesday.
In a press statement, he pointed out that “an NPP government will build the most business-friendly and most people-friendly economy in Africa. This means that job creation will be at the heart of economic policy. A lot of the other taxes we are seeing today will be scrapped. We will reduce the tax burden on our people and businesses so that they can employ more people and introduce a Tax Credit scheme for companies that employ fresh graduates so that we will increase the employment of fresh graduates”.
Dr Bawumia explained that pensioners were one of the most vulnerable persons in society and that in the view of the NPP, gains made on investments in pensions are part of pensions and should be protected as it would not only make pensioners more comfortable but would also ensure that individuals have a bigger capacity to invest in businesses or simply increase savings and, therefore, access to credit.
The former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana once again stated that for the NPP, the ideal way to increase tax revenue is by formalising the economy through the issuance of National IDs and a properly functioning Property Address system, which will expand the tax net and grow the economy through jobs and productivity.
Taxes on air
Dr Bawumia took on the government for its incessant penchant to tax almost everything and anything and observed that if the John Mahama government found a way, it would even impose taxes on the air Ghanaians breathe.
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While dissecting the causes of the economic and social crisis Ghana finds itself in today, Dr Bawumia pointed out that the current slump in the economy had been occasioned by the government’s mismanagement, corruption and incompetence and that in their desperate bid to find a way out, the government had resorted to imprudently imposing taxes on every conceivable item.