The Minority in Parliament will today [Monday] present the NDC’s version of the mid-year budget review, dubbed, Mid-year Economic Performance and Projections -Minority’s Perspective.
The roundtable event will have civil society organizations, the Trades Union Congress and other bodies dialogue on the economic performance in the first half of the year, and make projections for the rest of the year.
The minority is also expected to assess the performance of the government in its one and half years in office.
This is ahead of the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta’s presentation of the midyear budget review in Parliament.
Read: VAT may go up from 17.5% to 21.5%
There are already suggestions that the government will increase the VAT rate from 17.5% to 21%.
But, a group, the Coalition for Democratic Governance has said it will spearhead a demonstration if the government goes ahead to announce the speculated tax increases in its budget review later this week.
Alex Sarpong, who is the Communications Officer for the coalition told Citi News the group is certain that the government plans to increase VAT.
“We know that it is something that they have planned to do, and they want to gather the information and the public reaction before they do the implementation. If Nana Addo says he is a listening president that he has been preaching, we want this to be done, shouldn’t be any new taxes, there shouldn’t be increament taxes.
Meanwhile, a Deputy Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah is hopeful Ghanaians will rally behind government to raise more revenue to fund its projects.
Read: VAT Increment: ‘Kumi Preko’ martyrs will turn in their graves – Pratt
Some individuals, including former President John Dramani Mahama, have raised concerns over the rumored increment, arguing that the new taxes would cripple businesses further and also defeat President Nana Addo’s much-touted mantra of “from taxation to production.â€
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah on Eyewitness News, however, disagreed with this assertion, arguing that government had done enough with the nation’s resources so far to warrant the buy-in of Ghanaians.
Source: citinewsroom.com