A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has described as a “blatant lie” the announcement of no increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.

Sammy Gyamfi, who said this on TV3‘s New Day on Friday, stressed: “It was a blatant lie, and as a matter of fact, the Finance Minister peddled falsehood when he told the august house of Parliament that VAT has not been increased when he knew that they have increased VAT through the backdoor.”

According to Sammy Gyamfi, taxes have been increased in this year’s mid-year budget review contrary to what many believe.

He argued that the conversion of the National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) and the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) taxes into straight taxes means Ghanaians will pay more than they used to.

He also said the current budget is not sensitive to the plight and cries of the Ghanaian, but seeks to impose more economic hardship on the already burdened Ghanaian.



NPP’s laziness

The NDC member further described the mid-year budget review as a disappointment and a betrayal of the trust the people of Ghana reposed in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) when they were elected into power.

Taxation, in his opinion, is a lazy approach to solving problems and that the NPP increased taxes as a result of their laziness.

“Ghana has lost a lot of money as a result of financial irregularities, and the NPP is drilling holes in the pocket of Ghanaians.



“Taxes are a means of revenue but if misapplied, it becomes corruption. The NHIS is crying for help and the NPP is spending millions of Ghana cedis on training communicators,” he alleged.

NPP’s Nana Kofi Damoah, who was also on New Day, however, disagreed with Sammy Gyamfi, saying government has taken bold decisions to scrap about 15 different taxes.



He claimed a lot of Ghanaians do not pay taxes and measures have been taken to ensure compliance.

“Statistics would show that about 6 million of Ghanaians do not pay taxes, and what the conventional numbers have shown is 2 million.”