The Government of Ghana has announced that some taxes will be eliminated in the 2017 budget.

The budget, the first under the Akufo-Addo-led administration, would be presented to parliament by March 31.

Government intends to reduce or in some cases, completely remove some taxes as part of a proposed tax reform.

For instance, government is looking at reducing corporate income tax from 25 to 20 percent and abolishing the 17.5 percent tax on financial services.

Finance Minister-designate, Ken Ofori Atta said government is in the process of deciding on which of the proposed tax reforms will be captured in the 2017 budget.

“The tax cuts will be signaled strongly in the first budget and with the type of deficit you have, we clearly will have to be cautious about it. But in terms of the trajectory object certainly even in this first budget a certain number of taxes will be eliminated,” Mr. Ofori Atta told Starr Business News on the sidelines of a Ghana-Morocco Economic Meeting which seeks to enhance business relations between the two countries.

Mr. Ofori Atta added “we are just drawing up the budget and we are enumerating the number of taxes we promised in the manifesto and then phase them in. But as I mentioned the need to attract investment is key and so those will also be looked at very seriously.”

Miriem Bensalah-Chaqroun is leader of the Moroccan delegation speaking at the same event said both countries should take advantage of the business opportunities that exist between the two countries.

“We don’t have very flattering figures; we only do sixty seven million dollars of exchange which is very low but in another hand as business leaders and business entrepreneurs we see the potential for more added value and job creation because that’s who we are.”

“The private sector is the sector that creates most and more sustainable jobs and this is a periodic map that should be integrated into all our countries,” she said.