An advocacy team known as for Tax Justice Coalition- Ghana, a non-governmental organization, is asking government to extend the reliefs introduced on water and electricity when the COVID-19 pandemic began in Ghana.
“The economy of majority of Ghanaians are in the process of rebooting and since the cases are increasing, the reliefs provided by the government to mitigate the impact should remain a little while,” Treasurer of the coalition, Dorcas Lomotey said in an interview.
While praising the government for swiftly deploying different mitigating methods in the fight against COVID-19, Dorcas Lomotey noted that the extension of the water and electricity reliefs will further sustain low-income households who are mostly women and children.
She explained that “it is not for nothing that the GHS600 million stimulus package targeted small and medium scale industries. These are the mainstay of the majority of Ghanaian households. But we all know this NBSSI loan is yet to revive the businesses for these households. This simply means these households are practically incapable to resume payment of electricity and water bills as the days before COVID-19. It is in view of this that Tax justice Coalition- Ghana is asking for the relief provided to shield Ghanaians be extended a little while, as have been done for the frontline health workers, whilst we track the performance of the loan facility.”
Mrs. Lomotey is also urging the Ghana Revenue Authority to take the opportunity offered by the NBSSI to rope in persons applying for the NBSSI loan facility for tax identification purposes, in an attempt to get players in the informal sector into the tax net.
The Finance Minister will on Thursday, July 23, 2020, present the mid-year budget review to Parliament.