Ghanatodayonline.com News, Politics, Health, Education & More
The government erred in passing the Emissions Levy when the Excise tax was already in place, according to former Finance Minister Seth Terkper.
Ghana joined South Africa and Mauritius as the third African nation to implement a carbon tax in January 2024.
Seth Terkper maintains that there is already a tax that addresses environmental pollution, but the new tax was strongly opposed by Ghanaians, resulting in its suspension.
He said the government didn’t need to impose an additional tax since Ghana was one of the first countries to use the excise tax to combat pollution.
“Ghana was amongst the first countries to use excise duty to tackle pollution and that’s why some of us were against the emissions Levy.”
“Under the excise duty, we used to prevent cars that are 10 years old and above from being imported. And the duty you pay on your car is decided on how long it had been used. An 8-year-old car’s emissions is more than a vehicle that is 5 years no matter how well it is handled,” during the PFMTax Africa media dialogue on Ghana’s IMF program, Seth Terkper stated.
According to him, one of the main reasons why the country keeps facing financial crisis and keeps borrowing is because Ghana does not pay back her debts.
“If you borrow, find a way to pay. It is very important that we do this. We also have to set up a debt management fund if we really want to stop borrowing and also take arrears seriously as a nation” he emphasized.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
