The Traders Advocacy Group Ghana (TAGG) has called on the government to eliminate pointless levies like the COVID-19 fee and the network service charge ahead of the 2024 budget presentation on Wednesday, November 15, 2023.
“How are you able to bill me for network services?” questioned the President of the Traders Advocacy Group Ghana, David Kojo Amoateng. “We need to get rid of the network charge.”
In addition, Mr. Amoateng proposed renaming the COVID-19 levy to target other issues like cancer, renal disease, or dialysis if it is not going to be eliminated.
“The trading sector anticipates that, even in the event that the COVID levy is not repealed, the name may be changed to dialysis, kidney, or cancer,” he stated on the
Point of View on Monday, November 13.
Meanwhile, Kenneth Thompson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dalex Finance and Leasing Company Limited, has warned of a looming economic downturn in 2024 if the government continues its current pattern of ever-increasing and large expenditure.
“As a country, what we must focus on now is how to protect the poor,” Mr. Thompson said in an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Face to Face on Citi TV. “If you talk about cutting expenditure, there’s a long list of things we can cut, but we need to protect the poor, and we need to focus on health, education, infrastructure, food, and everything else because we are in a very bad place.”
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has indicated that long-term relief measures for the victims of the Akosombo Dam spillage will be taken into consideration during the formulation of the 2024 budget.
“We have mobilised a few things that we would like to share but I think we are also in the budget season and therefore it will not just be numbers that we are working on but true feelings in the field and therefore the need to look at these social interventions in a real way,” Mr. Ofori-Atta said after touring the affected communities a few days ago. “We will certainly give this an expression immediately and also in the budget.”
