Peter Akwesi Mensah, NDC communicator
A Communications Team Member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Akwesi Mensah says he has never seen a lazy budget such as the 2022 budget (Agyenkwa) in the history of Ghana, describing it a ‘wicked budget’.
According to him, the government does not think about Ghanaians, and has therefore introduced such taxes after the government told Ghanaians that, ‘We are not in normal times’.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, reading the 2022 budget in Parliament on Wednesday 17th November 2021, said government has decided to place a levy on all electronic transactions.
According to him, Electronic transactions covering mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments and inward remittances will be charged at an applicable rate of 1.75%, which shall be borne by the sender except inward remittances, which will be borne by the recipient.
Speaking on Atinka TV’s morning show, Ghana Nie with Ekourba Gyasi Simpremu, Mr Peter Akwesi Mensah said, “I have never seen a government which has introduced such a lazy tax in the political history. I have never seen that.”
Mr Peter Akwesi Mensah also said, ”with a government that said it will move Ghana from taxation to production and the same government came to tell Ghanaians that we are not in normal times and then brings this tax at this crucial moment, it is a killer tax.”
Although he said he was not against taxes, he said the taxes should be introduced considering the economic situation of the country and how people will be affected.
Mr Peter Akwesi Mensah noted that since the beginning of this year, the government has introduced about 10 taxes, saying it is not that the government has not gotten enough taxes and therefore has to impose new taxes on Ghanaians at all cost despite the hardship.
“If you look at the taxes the government has taken, it does not have to impose any new tax. The taxes this government has collection within the spate of four years is about GHC228 Billion. If you have gotten this money and you have respect for Ghanaians, you will not introduce these taxes,” he said.