[ 2021-03-16 ]

Ghanaians to pay tax for Covid-19 ‘free water’ enjoyed to fill economic gap
Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has
indicated that Ghanaians will have to pay for the
free provision of water and electricity introduced
by the government in 2020 as part of measures to
curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

President Akufo-Addo in April 2020, announced a
free utility package for the vulnerable in the
country to lessen the virus’ negative impact
following a lockdown in Accra and Kumasi .

Again, Akufo-Addo in his 21st address to the
nation said, “With the continuing difficulties
occasioned by the pandemic, I want to state that
government intends to continue to support the most
vulnerable in our society.

“Government will, thus, continue to pay the
electricity bills for our nation’s one million
active lifeline customers for the next three
months, i.e. January, February and March.”



But speaking on PM: Express Monday, Mr Nkrumah
said “It was free to the people of Ghana at the
time.”

According to him, the decision last year was
because the pandemic was a looming crisis and the
government had to improvise for the country’s
well-being.

“When we say free electricity it doesn’t mean
that the IPP producer is also going to say because
the President has said free electricity I won’t
charge for it.”

Speaking to Evans Mensah, Mr Nkrumah said Ghana
has spent about ¢19 billion on Covid-19 related
issues and that includes the relief package on the
utilities.

“But that 19 billion cedis has to be paid for at
some point, the liabilities we have incurred has
to be paid for,” he indicated Monday night.

“So I am going back to Ofoasi to explain to my
people why we need to ensure that we all pay that
1% extra so that we can continue to provide those
services for the people of Ghana to protect lives
and livelihoods,” he said.

This, according to him, will help ameliorate the
economy and bridge the gap between the country’s
income and expenditure.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah said the gap has been widened
even further by Covid-19 adding that “we are at
a point where you have to make a choice.”

He noted that there is a need to, “get our
people collectively across the device to
understand that at some point, we have to get out
of this economic one-step-forward half-a
step-back, sometimes one step forward, two steps
backwards conundrum in which we find ourselves.

“To do that, we cannot consistently borrow our
way out of our problems, domestic resource
mobilisation has to be tweaked and it has to be
done in a way that you can raise resources without
overburdening the people.”

The Information Minister told JoyNews that
“everything we consume in this country is paid
for.”

“If not, we will arrive at that graph you showed
us earlier where the gap keeps widening.”

According to him, the government’s decision to
provide the free utilities was a strategic choice
made on behalf of Ghanaians.

He cited: “If we are at war and the government
has to make a decision that we have to procure
ABCDEFG to go war and win that war and does not
necessarily task the population for it today and
mobilises for us to achieve it, it is well in
order for the government when we have won the war
or on a clear path to winning the war.”

He, therefore, observed that failure to introduce
some tax components to solve the problem means
“we will get to a point where our economy cannot
pay for basic service debt, pay wedges and
salaries and do things that prior to 2016 we found
ourselves doing.”

Meanwhile, Former Deputy Finance Minister, Dr
Cassiel Ato Forson on the same program maintains
the government has been reckless with its
expenditure.

According to him, the impact of Covid-19 on the
economy is not as bad as the government seeks to
portray.

Source - Joyfm

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