Economist Dr. Priscilla Twumasi Baffour has urged the government to reconsider its pledge to abolish certain taxes if doing so would threaten Ghana’s economic stability.

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Speaking on Joy News' PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, February 13, she emphasized that while tax cuts may be politically attractive, they must be weighed against the country's fiscal health to prevent further economic distress.

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“It’s a difficult period, and I believe that there is nothing wrong if the government, I mean, the finance minister, comes out to say that we promised X, Y, and Z, but this is the reality—it is not possible,” she stated.

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Dr. Baffour cautioned that hastily eliminating multiple taxes without a clear plan to compensate for lost revenue could push the economy into deeper instability. She warned that such a move could have dire consequences for businesses and individuals alike.

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“The risk to businesses and Ghanaians as a whole is that if the trajectory that the economy is currently on switches and we enter into another phase of turbulence, it will be quite disastrous for everybody. It affects people in terms of standards of living. Fixed-income earners really struggle with high inflation and all that,” she explained.

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Acknowledging the political implications of maintaining taxes, Dr. Baffour stressed that economic stability should take precedence. She advised that the government has the flexibility to adjust its stance in light of economic realities.

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“Initially, it would mean some political cost, but I think that the government has a lot of room at the moment, and it should not be hasty in taking out all the taxes that it promised to remove if indeed it’s very difficult to make up for it,” she advised.

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Reflecting on past policies, she noted that the government’s previous attempts to shift focus from taxation to production by scrapping so-called “nuisance taxes” were well-intended but did not yield immediate economic growth.

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“The whole idea of, for example, taking out a lot of taxes, nuisance taxes as we heard some time ago, is the fact that you want to de-emphasize taxation and look at production. But the reality is that in our context, growth is quite difficult. It takes quite some time to be able to observe a given substantial level of growth,” she remarked.

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Her remarks come as the government faces pressure to fulfill campaign promises on tax relief while simultaneously managing economic recovery from high debt, inflation, and revenue shortfalls. Dr. Baffour’s perspective serves as a reminder that maintaining a stable economic environment should take precedence over short-term political gains.

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