Accra, March 19, GNA - Professor John Evans Atta Mills, National Democratic (NDC) Flag bearer on Wednesday said his first priority when elected as President next year would be the review of the multiple high taxes NPP government has introduced.

He told a press conference in Accra that the increased taxes, fees and charges in the Budget were " back-breaking taxes" which undermined "the NPP's whole concept of the so-called Golden Age of Business".

Prof Mills who dwelt on the NPP'S 2003 budget at his first formal press conference after he was elected the flag bearer in December last year, said there were many tax increases in the Budget whose overall impact would be the imposition of extreme hardships on the people,

"They include the increase in the daily income tax paid by commercial transport operators which will translate into higher transport fares, the upward revision of rates and fees charged by the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies for services rendered to the public, the extension of the National Reconstruction Levy for three more years, and the increase in duty on some imported products"

"The extension of the National Reconstruction Levy for three more years is in particular a most regressive step in fiscal policy. In another breath, it extends the additional 10 percent National Reconstruction Levy imposed on the Banks for another three years.

He asked, "when you take away more of the funds available to the Banks for lending to the private sector through the backdoor tax of the National Reconstruction Levy, how are they expected to have money available for lending?"

Prof Mills said the government sought to justify that by saying that 25 percent of the revenue so accrued would go into setting up a venture capital fund and added that, that could easily be arranged with the banks without recourse to additional taxation.

He said it was acknowledged worldwide that high taxes and high fees and charges acted as disincentives to the development of private business and that was why from 1986 to 2000 when he was most of the time the Internal Revenue Commissioner (IRS) he had reduced corporate and marginal tax rates from 65 percent to 30 per cent and customs tariffs were similarly brought down.