2024 budget: Scrap COVID-19 levy, network service charge, other 'unnecessary' taxes — Group tells gov't

The Traders Advocacy Group Ghana (TAGG) has urged the government to eliminate what they described as unnecessary taxes, particularly highlighting the COVID-19 levy and the network service charge.

In a statement issued on Monday, TAGG President David Kojo Amoateng questioned the rationale behind the imposition of a network service charge, stating, “How can you charge me a network service charge? The network charge is something that has to go.”

Expressing further concerns, Mr. Amoateng proposed that if the COVID-19 levy is not abolished, it should be renamed to address specific concerns such as dialysis, kidney or cancer diseases.

"We from the trading sector expect that even if the COVID levy will not go, maybe there will even be a change in the name to dialysis, kidney, or cancer," he remarked during an interview on the Point of View on Citi TV on Monday, November 13, 2023.

Meanwhile, Kenneth Thompson, CEO of Dalex Finance and Leasing Company Limited, has warned of a potential economic downturn in 2024 if the government continues its current trend of high expenditures.

“As a country, what we must focus on now is how to protect the poor,” Mr. Thompson emphasized during an interview on Citi TV.

“If you talk about cutting expenditure, there’s a long list of things we can cut, but we need to protect the poor, and we need to focus on health, education, infrastructure, food, and everything else because we are in a very bad place,” he added.

In reaction to these concerns, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta stated that long-term relief measures for the victims of the Akosombo Dam spillage would be considered during the formulation of the 2024 budget.

“We have mobilized a few things that we would like to share, but I think we are also in the budget season, and therefore it will not just be numbers that we are working on but true feelings in the field and therefore the need to look at these social interventions in a real way,” Mr. Ofori-Atta commented after touring the affected communities a few days ago.

He added, “We will certainly give this an expression immediately and also in the budget.”

The Finance Minister shall present the 2024 budget on Wednesday, November 15, 2023.