The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has urged for the elimination of the COVID-19 Levy and the Special Import Levy from the 2024 budget.
President of GUTA, Dr. Joseph Obeng, clarified that reducing the cost of doing business would boost productivity and enable the government to meet its revenue targets more effectively.
“We are talking about the 1% COVID-19 levy to be removed. We also talk about the special import levy of 2% that has been imposed on us since the previous administration, we also are talking about the VAT, the complex nature of VAT,” he said.
In 2021, the government introduced the COVID-19 Health Recovery Levy as a distinct tax, applied to the total value of taxable supplies of goods and services under the Standard Rate and VAT Flat Rate Schemes.
As the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the end of the COVID-19 pandemic as a public health emergency, various voices have called for the discontinuation of this one percent tax.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has engaged with interest groups like GUTA in preparation for presenting the 2024 budget to Parliament in November.
He has acknowledged the concerns raised by these groups about the high tax rates in the country and indicated that these concerns will be taken into consideration during the budget presentation.
“Over this period, we’ve met with AGI, GUTA, Chamber of Commerce, all of that to take in the views and predominantly it is a multiplicity of taxes that they have raised as a major concern that we have to look at. So looking at the taxes, looking at access to capital, and the price of capital, I think they will be key issues to address for the private sector,” he assured.
Despite receiving assurances from the Finance Ministry that some taxes will be reduced, the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) maintains that both the COVID-19 Levy and the Special Import Levy, in particular, must be completely eliminated.