President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe has cautioned that any is any marginal increase in taxes by the government during the mid year review of the budget, could bring undue hardship and unnecessary burden on the citizenry.
He stated that, the NPP government while in opposition campaigned against numerous taxes by the erstwhile Mahama led government; hence it would be unjustifiable for the government to increase taxes in order to finance especially the free education and the one district one dam policies as examples.
Close associates to the presidency have dropped hints of possible increases in taxes including the Value Added Tax, but the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta and other government spokespersons who have been commenting on the issue ahead of the midyear review of the 2018 budget, have not been definite on whether there would be an increase in VAT .
Speaking to a section of the media in Accra, Franklin Cudjoe accused government of misusing state funds saying they therefore cannot be asking for more taxes when they have not judiciously used what was available.
Sighting the Kelni GVG contract and other botched contracts signed by the government, alongside granting tax exemptions to some giant companies; Franklin Cudjoe urged government to rather consider blocking such loopholes and wastage to save money for development purposes.
