An economist, Prof Godfred Bokpin says he is anticipating that the government takes advantage of the midyear budget review to merge the street levies with standard Value-Added Tax (VAT) rates and peg them below 18%.
“This is a must… In time past, we have taken advantage of midyear reviews to make major policy interventions deeming the macro criticality of the situation. So I am expecting that the government will respond positively to concerns of the private sector and businesses,” he added.
Prof Bokpin was speaking in an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Eyewitness News on Citi FM in Accra on Monday.
He explained that this was crucial because the country’s VAT rate was one of the highest on the African continent.
“This is unsustainable. This is inequality worsened. This has implications for poverty reduction. This has implications for the competitiveness of our private sector. So for something like this, we cannot say that we should wait for it to be rather incorporated in the substantive budget,” he added.
Prof Bokpin again said that he was expecting that government would take steps to remove the e-levy and free up the sector to grow and create jobs in the country.