A member of the Parliament Committee on Finance, Dr. Mark Asibey Yeboah is angry with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for ordering financial institutions in the country to stop charging a one percent tax on interest earned on investments.<\/p>\n
He argued that GRA cannot reverse a decision passed by Parliament hence the collection of such taxes should continue \u201cuntil such a time the government itself decides that it wants the decision reversed and lays it before Parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”9kBzL7IWHmarvnhRs9uiuLO2S3lgRdss”]The GRA this week directed all financial institutions to suspend the collection of the 1% tax<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n The government begun implementation of an Act of Parliament which imposed a one percent tax on interests accruing from investments made by individuals \u00a0but the decision was met with a massive public outcry.<\/p>\n Meanwhile the GRA on Wednesday directed the financial institutions to halt the collection of the tax since a proposal has been forwarded to Parliament for a reversal.<\/p>\n Though Dr. Asibey said he is against the tax, he told Citi News<\/strong> that the GRA has breached the law by suspending the collection of the taxes days after the Act was implemented.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Parliament passes a law, the president assents to it that is the position of the law. Even the president in his press conference was not able to send a message to Ghanaians that nobody should pay that tax; the minister of finance cannot say same. Now the GRA sends a directive to financial institutions to stop collecting the tax. I think it\u2019s a not right, they shouldn\u2019t have done that and as the law stands they should go ahead and collect the taxes because it is only parliament that can reverse the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n The New Juaben South lawmaker insisted that though collection of taxes is done by the GRA, it has no right to make such an order.<\/p>\n