24th August 2023 9:19:55 AM
2 mins readExecutive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, has criticized the government for providing a tax exemption of approximately GHC 43 million ($3.9 million) to a company for importing construction materials to build a hotel.
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This criticism comes at a time when the government has imposed the electronic transfer levy (e-levy) on Ghanaians, citing the urgent need for funds to stabilize the economy.
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Mr. Braimah disclosed that in 2022, the government, led by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, requested Parliament to approve a tax exemption of $6.3 million for a wealthy private entity known as 4-Mack Ltd.
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This tax break was intended to facilitate the construction of a 4-star hotel. The government justified this request by linking it to the "one district one factory" policy, part of its industrialization agenda.
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He questioned the classification of a hotel as a factory and raised concerns about the substantial tax exemption granted, especially when the government was facing revenue challenges.
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“Last year, the Finance Minister and other government officials spent tax money moving from region to region to appeal to the poor people of Ghana to accept the imposition of E-Levy. This was at a time the poor people of our country were already struggling to survive economically. But they explained that the people needed to pay more taxes because the country needed more tax revenues.
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But in the same year, and while our economy was crashing, the Finance Minister requested parliament to grant a tax waiver of $ 6.3 million to a wealthy private company called 4-Mack Ltd, which was going to build a luxurious 4-Star private hotel called Le Meridian Hotel. The justification for the tax exemption request by the Finance Minister was that the Building of the 4-star private Luxurious hotel formed part of the government’s One District One Factory Policy. Under this government, strange things are happening indeed! A Hotel as a Factory? But Guess what? Our Parliamentarians approved it,” he wrote on social media.
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Mr. Braimah is therefore calling for Members of Parliament, particularly those on the Finance Committee, to be held accountable for their approval of the government's tax exemption request.
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“Dear Ghanaian Journalists, the people of Ghana deserve explanations from Hon. Kwaku Kwarteng and Hon. Cassiel Ato Forson, Chairman and Ranking Member respectively on the Finance Committee of Parliament, why, on November 25, 2022, their Committee asked Parliament to approve a whopping $3.9million (about GHC43million) tax exemption to a company called 4-Mac Ltd for the building of a 4-Star luxurious HOTEL under the pretext that the HOTEL was part of the One District, One Factory Policy. How did they come to the conclusion that a HOTEL is a FACTORY?” he quizzed.
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