Solomon Owusu, a member of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) media team, has lamented the high taxes, which he claims are progressively killing Ghanaian enterprises.
He claims that business owners are having trouble sleeping because their companies are fighting to survive and that too much taxation and the rising exchange rate are to blame.
His remark follows the closure of shops by merchants in the Kumasi Central Business District in protest of what they claim are onerous tax regulations that damage their companies.
The traders have vowed not to rescind their decision until the Government intervenes to address their concerns.
The traders have also been concerned with the strength of the cedi. The Ghana cedi has depreciated by 37.5% to the US dollar as of the end of September 2022 according to the Bank of Ghana.
Commenting on the development on Ghana Kasa show on Kasapa 102.5FM/Agoo TV Wednesday, Solomon Owusu who himself is a businessman urged the governent to step up its efforts at stabilizing the Cedis while reviewing aspects of the tax policy to address concerns of business persons.
“Taxes paid in this country are too much, and the exchange rate keeps increasing by the day and people are losing their capital. Businessmen and women are in great difficulty, where we find ourselves is very scary. No businessman is able to have a good sleep and because the policy rate increases, the loan repayment rate also increases. Business people are dying slowly, it is not funny, it’s very serious.”
“The country will see the effect of the action of the traders between December to February 2023. It takes some time before vessels arrive with imported items, so if we don’t encourage traders to import early, but import later, it will take about a month or two before the items will arrive in Ghana. So between that period when the items will arrive in Ghana, how are people going to survive,” he asked.