The Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has described the government’s proposed 15% Value Added Tax (VAT) on electricity for residential customers as a practical joke.

His comments came after the Ministry of Finance, in a statement on January 30, noted that it is going to have an extensive engagement with stakeholders, including organised labour, ECG, NEDCO and others on the proposed VAT for residential customers of electricity.

Kwesi Pratt Jnr, in an interview on Metro TV, said: “Clearly, this lifeline that the government offers is a practical joke.”

He explained that the lifeline power, which is supposed to benefit low-income consumers, covers only a very small fraction of the population.

According to him, the government's plan to impose additional VAT on electricity consumption is a concern for Organised Labour and many other sections of the society, who are already burdened by the high cost of living and the economic hardship.

“If you examine it carefully, if anybody enjoys lifeline power, it is a very minute part of the population. And as explained by the secretary general of the TUC, if you have two bulbs and have a television, you are not a life line consumer and it practically means everybody.

“On the basis of this joke, the government then intends to impose additional VAT on the consumption of electricity, that is the concern of Organised Labour and also indeed the concerns of many other sections of our society,” he stated.

Additionally, Kwesi Pratt noted that the statement from the Ministry of Finance was very annoying, as it showed that the government was not ready to step down on its proposal, hence the stakeholder engagement.

To him, the decision to embark on a stakeholder engagement suggests that the people who were agitating against the VAT did not understand the issue, for this reason the government wants to use the engagement period to try to get their buy-in.

“I have taken time to read the statement from the Ministry of Finance and to be honest with you, portions of it are very annoying. Paragraph 3 states that the government is going to have an engagement with stakeholders to get their buy in. This means that the government is not ready to step down and it only appears that the people who are agitating about this VAT do not understand the issue.

"So, the purpose of the stakeholder consultation is to actually get them to buy into the programme. I find it most offensive and I don't know who introduced this into the statement,” he added.

NW/AE

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