This Government is so obsessed with low-hanging fruits

Always reaching for the low-hanging fruit may appear effective in the short term, but in the long run it will distract you from more valuables which are more difficult to achieve. A low-hanging fruit is something that is easy to obtain, achieve, or take advantage of, it is usually exploited by people who are lazy and lack innovative ideas to solve problems.

During their opposition days, then candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his running mate Dr.Mahamudu Bawumia promised Ghanaians that if given power, they will use their innovative ideas to transform the fortunes of this country, because they claimed to have the men. They created an impression that, they were capable of thinking outside the box in order to address the challenges facing the country. The NPP promised to eradicate what they termed as “nuisance tax” and promised to shift the economy from taxation to production.

The narratives and rhetoric of candidate Akufo-Addo and Bawumia suggested that, Ghanaians were going to see a new paradigm shift in leadership under Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government. However, after eventually winning the 2016 elections, Ghanaians have experienced a bitter lesson of leadership under the current government.

The government is so obsessed with every low hanging-fruit, they have squeezed Ghanaians with multitudes of taxations that indicate how empty they are in terms of ideas.

Energy Sector Levy:
The Energy Sector Levies Act (ESLA), 2015 (Act 899) was introduced and promulgated in 2015 to address the huge debt burden and operational challenges facing State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in the Energy Sector, support power generation and power supply sustainability, subsidize premix and stabilize petroleum. It was in the peak of the 2013-2015 power crises when former president Mahama implemented the (ESLA) in 2015 as a measure to stabilize Ghana's energy sector and mitigate the impact of the crisis. It was supposed to be scrapped in 2020 after serving its purpose of addressing the energy debt.

The NPP and their candidate Akufo-Addo described it as a nuisance tax that was going to burden Ghanaians. They promised to scrap it immediately if voted into office. However, after winning the 2016 elections, president Akufo-Addo realised that, this was an easy money they could cling on, they extended the tax beyond its original intended date of 2020 to 2035 and collateralised it for loan.

Electronic Service Tax (E-Levy):
In another glaring evidence of laziness on the part of the government, they introduced a highly controversial levy on all electronic transfers of money between businesses to businesses, between individuals, and between individuals and businesses. Majority of Ghanaians expressed their displeasure, however, the government wouldn’t flinch, in their view, this was another low- hanging fruit they cannot afford to lose. They forcefully introduced this tax to basically tax monies from people’s pockets. "Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery." (Chris Rock)

Covid Tax
After receiving close to USD3 billion from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a support for the COVID-19 pandemic, the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government insensitively introduced another tax called COVID-19 tax. The then Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, claimed that, this obnoxious tax was introduced to offset the debt the government incurred when it provided free water and electricity to the citizenry during the peak of the pandemic. Ironically, the government failed to account to Ghanaians what it did with the USD3 billion it received from the World Bank and the IMF combined.

Betting Tax:
As a government that takes advantage of everything at its beck and call, the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government saw another easy route and introduced a new measure that will see a 10% tax applied to betting and lottery winnings. Winnings from betting, lottery, and games of chance are subject to the withholding tax at the point of payout. Currently, income from lottery operations is subject to a tax rate of 20% on Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR).

The new faced criticism from the unemployed youth who argued that betting and lottery winnings often serve as alternative income sources for them. In defence, the government claimed this tax was aimed at discouraging the unemployed youth from gambling. The question is why the Government issue licenses did to gambling companies to operate if it believed gambling was not good for the youth?

Clearly, the main intention behind the betting tax is greed and laziness, it was an opportunity to exploit the already suffering unemployed youth who have found solace in gambling as a means of survival due to the economic mismanagement of this government.

“It takes discipline to focus on high-value targets instead of giving in to the temptation of the low-hanging fruit life serves us daily” (Mark Divine).

I say this with honesty and sincerity, apart from incompetence, the main bane of this Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government is greed and indiscipline. They lack the discipline to overlook the low-hanging fruits and churn out innovative and novel ideas to solve our socio-economic problems.

This is why they go for every loan that is available to them for present consumption without concern to the future consequences. Any person who accepts loan offers from their bank or credit card balance increment from lenders without realistically needing it cannot progress in life, and that is exactly the attitude of this Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government.