The Ghana Hotels Association has raised concerns about the possibility of Ghana recording lower tourist arrivals in the country in the coming months due to the 21 levies being charged by the government.
According to the hoteliers, the multiplicity of taxes has forced members to increase rates at their facilities making them slightly higher than facilities of competitors in neighbouring countries whose rates are lower and attractive to tourists.
The Eastern and Greater Accra Regional Chairmen of the Hotels Association, Samuel Yeboah and Benjamin Afunya respectively, while interacting with the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Michael Kofi Okyere Baafi, at the Eastern Regional Hotel Forum in Koforidua, highlighted some challenges including bad access to hotels and tourist sites, multiplicity of taxes by government agencies amongst others.
According to them, these challenges may threaten the ‘Beyond the Return’ agenda by the government and the Ghana Tourism Authority if not addressed.
Mr Yeboah stated, “Bad access of roads to our hotels or tourist sites, the multiplicity of taxes charged by the government and other agencies, high utility charges and charges of the districts and municipal assemblies on property rates, business operating permit, signage fees etc.”
“These problems and a lot more shall be areas we shall support the national office to continue to address until we get a favourable hearing from the central government.”
Mr Afunya, also noted, “We were even promised this mid-year that we were going to enjoy certain things, we also did not see that. So, I believe that now that he is here, let us put the tax questions to him because I believe it will be a way to send that message. In fact, technically they say that it is 15% but when we put all the levies together it is about 21%.”
“Again, we also talked about this COVID levy being taken away and all that. We’ve talked about it severally not just us alone, others have also talked about it. What is GRA or the government doing about it so that some of these things will go away? They keep on saying that our rates are still expensive. It is because of all these composite taxes that we are going through. What is the government doing so that some of these things go away,” he stated.
The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Michael Kofi Okyere Baafi who commended them for remaining in business despite these challenges assured them of government support and urged members of the association to take advantage of the 8.2 billion SME Growth and Opportunity Fund to expand their operations.
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