Finance Minister Designate, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has raised concerns about tax exemptions made by the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for some companies.
According to him, they were discriminatory and not properly targeted.
The Finance Minister Designate made the argument when he faced the Appointments Committee of Parliament for vetting on Monday, January 13.
“Tax exemption is becoming a major source of tax expenditure in our fiscal framework. Unfortunately, it’s not properly targeted and so you see a situation where we exempt huge volumes of our taxes to particular companies. At the same time because we are exempting those taxes we end up increasing the tax rate for so many other people to pay. I believe everyone else must be given the opportunity to pay taxes,” Dr. Ato Forson shared.
He continued, “My concern, particularly with the one that you are making reference to, I’m sure it has to do with 1D1F is that it is not transparent enough. I do not believe that certain individuals must be privileged enough to get tax exemptions while others doing the same should not be given the opportunity to get tax exemption.”
In his submission, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson proposed that if the new John Dramani Mahama administration wants to provide tax exemption for factories under the One District One Factor, a law must be passed to ensure all companies enjoy the exemption and not just one company.