Tema, Nov. 16, GNA – The request by some labour unions to the government to separate the overtime tax from basic salary is not possible, Mr Habibu Adams, Senior Economist at the office of the Senior Presidential Advisor, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, has said.
Mr Adams, speaking at the Ghana News Agency Dialogue platform, explained that the computation of overtime tax was enshrined in the taxation laws and the government could not separate it in the 2022 budget.
He said the unions should call for the amendment of the law on overtime tax computation, saying “it is not directly under government unless it is amended.”
He said the law permitted none management members of staff to enjoy the overtime bonus payment because such benefits were embedded in the salaries of senior workers.
He said it was the duty of management to ensure that juniors or other workers discharged their duties effectively and efficiently and supervised them to produce their maximum during official working hours.
Mr Adams said, “usually at workplaces sometimes because of overtime benefits, people don’t meet their targets intentionally during office hours”.
The Tema District Council of Labour (TDCL) has called on the government to reduce taxations on overtime payments to serve as an incentive for workers to put in extra hours when the need arose.
The TDCL leadership, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency ahead of the presentation of the 2022 budget, urged the government to announce the reduction in the overtime tax and also called for the separation of bonuses from the basic salary.
The TDCL leadership said adding bonuses to the salary before tax was unfair and left workers with no benefits.
Mr Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager of the Ghana News Agency, said the dialogue on the budget was to offer the Senior Economist the opportunity to throw light on the budget preparation.
He said, “as journalists we need to be well informed on the issues surrounding the budget before we could effectively educate the public on it after the presentation”.
Mr Ameyibor said there was the need for the GNA office to help the public to reach out to the government and people in authority with their issues while bringing the government’s policy to the people.
He said to this end, the GNA had initiated some programmes, including the boardroom dialogue to provide the platform for state and non-state actors to interact and discuss national issues.