citinewsroom.com |7/17/2018

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dalex Finance, Kenneth Thompson, says Ghana is broke, and so government must take immediate steps to fix what he calls a “time bomb.”

“Ghana is broke, let’s face up to the reality and deal with it and stop this long English,” he said on The Point of View on Citi TV on Monday.

Mr. Thompson made the remark following reports about government’s intention to increase taxes.

Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, is expected in Parliament on Thursday to present government’s supplementary budget review.

Ahead of the review, there have been heated discussions in the country following a hint by a member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) of a possible increase in taxes and National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL).

The New Statesman newspaper reported that government may increase taxes from 17.5 percent to 21.5 percent.

Mr. Thompson, while speaking on The Point of View with Bernard Avle, urged government to broaden the tax base by getting more people to pay taxes instead of increasing the taxes.

“The challenge we have is how do we expand the tax net, it’s not about deepening it. All we keep on doing is trying to deepen it. Expanding tax net is getting more people to pay taxes, while the deepening means increasing it.”

“If you spend nearly 100 percent of your income on three line items you are broke. And when you are broke what do you do? You either increase income, reduce expenditure or you do both. But I’m not sure that the government is not serious at collecting more money. Not long ago I said I will pay property tax if they come to my house. Nobody has come to my house. Ghana is broke and that is the reality that we must all come to and find a way to get ourselves out of it,” the Dalex Finance CEO added.