Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee, James Klutse Avedzi has hit hard at the Vice Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party; Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia over the latter’s assertions that an NPP government will scrap taxes on imported raw materials and manufacturing equipment.
He contends that such a decision will affect government’s revenue and stifle economic growth.
[contextly_sidebar id=”UT2h0J510RD4jOpiLFm19pu5yfyBcYB8″]Dr. Bawumia on his USA tour had promised that should his party win the November polls, taxes on imported raw materials and manufacturing equipment will be scrapped to boost local production and create more jobs.
But James Avedzi told Citi News the policy is unattainable.
“If companies are going to produce in this country; they don’t need to import anything. What are they going to import? Very few inputs so what is the import issue that he is talking about and that he is going to exempt those companies, what kind of argument is that?”
He explained that government is instead “encouraging companies to produce here so that we will reduce importation” so as to reduce the cost of products since importing the finished products into the country “make the cost of these products expensive.”
Dr. Bawumia while speaking at a fundraising event being organized by some chapters of the NPP USA branch in Houston outlined a number of policies an NPP government would introduce including the scrapping of all import duties on raw materials.
“We have focused a lot on revenue generation at the expense of production. The focus of government after government has been on taxation and very little on the incentives for production and if you get into that you are really creating an engine for unemployment and I am not surprised that the unemployment issue is not tackled because we have focused a lot on taxation.
“What we want to do in Ghana is to create the most business friendly and the most people friendly economy in Africa, that is the goal. Once you set that goal, you know what your competitors are up to,” the economist argued.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin