Accra, Nov. 23, GNA – The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) has called on government should re-consider some of its initiatives such as the e-levy of 1.
The Chamber said this would further worsen the plight of businesses, particularly Small Medium Enterprises, which are mainly growth-driven and susceptible to economic and market cycles.
Mr Clement Osei-Amoako, the President of GNCCI, said to increase revenue, government must focus on finding innovative ways of widening the tax net, ensuring tax compliance, as well as addressing the rising levels of tax exemptions which did not commensurate with business growth.
Mr Osei-Amoako was speaking at the GNCCI Seminar on the 2022 National budget in Accra on Wednesday.
It is to allow experts and business operators to appreciate and interrogate government policies and programmes contained in the 2022 National Budget, as well as to explore inherent risk and business opportunities.
He said to enhance tax compliance, government should widen the tax base through a reduction in the tax rate to a level affordable to the average taxpayer to avoid the perception that tax payment as a disincentive.
“This can be done through the indirect tax system (ad valorem tax), example sales tax and VAT,” he added.
Mr Osei-Amoako urged government, through the Financial Stability Council, to among other things strengthen and reinforce the stability of the financial sector, evaluate and mitigate risks by focusing on timely detection of any potential downsides and its subsequent management.
The President said given the impact of COVID-19 on business operations, continuous provision of stimulus package must consider the interconnected risks within the affected industries to achieve a better operational resilience and improved collective efficiency.
He said businesses should be encouraged to adopt and integrate operational risk management framework that embodies business processes, technology, people, systems, and the environment towards optimizing value and gains as well as mitigating or eliminating risks and losses.
“In this regard, there needs to be a public policy framework on risk management capabilities as well as policy on SME risk awareness,” he said.
He expressed the hope that the seminar would lead to increased awareness on the content of the 2022 National Budget, identify policy gaps for subsequent stakeholder engagement and advocacy, as well as areas of collaboration for value-adding projects.
The GNCCI urged government to continue to adopt a proactive approach in addressing issues of concern to the business community in the implementation of the 2022 budget.
He said the business community submitted seven thematic issues of business concern to the Ministry of Finance for consideration in the 2022 budget.
These areas include macro-economy; better business environment; interconnected risk management and resilient industrial value chains; integrating wholesale and retail in Ghana’s economic development programme.
Mr Kofi Frempong Kore, Partner and Head of KPMG, said the e-levy was not a tax but rather a levy and that not withstanding it had its own repercussions.
“I was in a forum with the Minister of Finance and there are all indications that government was listening to the suggestions and inputs concerning the e-levy and l am very sure that by the time the levy is finally passed, there will be some adjustments,” he said.
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