TAX COLLECTION — OUR COLLECTIVE RESOLVE

FROM Biblical times, tax collectors and administrators have been treated with scorn, thereby making them feel unwelcome, particularly among income earners.
Since then, governments have faced uphill tasks in trying to impose taxes. The Poll Tax of 1852 was met with serious resistance, spearheaded by the traditional authorities. The Kume Preko protests of 1996 were organised by the Alliance for Change against the introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) during the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, while the agitation by the Committee for Joint Action against high petroleum taxes is a clear manifestation of the people’s disdain for any policy that requires them to part with portions of their incomes.
But if lessons from the immense benefits being derived from the introduction of VAT and the subsequent upward adjustments towards the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to support educational institutions, students and the National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL) can serve as a guide to all, everybody will exercise some restraint before raising his/her voice against the introduction of any tax regime.
Politicians seek our mandate to manage the country, not with their own resources but out of the taxes paid by the governed. This explains why, in the most advanced democratic dispensations, the messages of those seeking the people’s mandate must include how they hope to raise the resources to fulfil their pledges.
Be that as it may, the DAILY GRAPHIC thinks that the entrenched positions adopted over the talk time tax announced by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, in the 2008 budget are not helpful.
One of the main concerns of industry players is that the largest group of subscribers on all networks are those who have significant financial limitations and, therefore, make low cost calls. But the government rebuts this by saying that the only losers in the new proposal will be the smugglers of cellular phones into the country. Strangely, no one has questioned the payment of VAT and NHIL on fixed lines so far.
The DAILY GRAPHIC, however, cautions against the tendency of allowing the levy on airtime to kill the astounding growth in the mobile phone industry.
Certainly, airtime levy will impose an additional burden on users of mobile phones, but cheaper mobile phone handsets will stimulate more economic activity by replacing travelling and enabling traders to engage with wider markets. The government’s decision to abolish taxes on mobile phones is a bold one, as a large proportion of handset sales in our markets are via the black market.
As a nation, we have always been globe-trotting with bowls in our hands begging for aid to develop the country. We cannot continue to rely on external sources to develop the country. One should be happy that gradually we are getting to the point where the country can mobilise the needed resources to boost entrepreneurship and economic activity, improve the road infrastructure, build more schools and health facilities, turn round the economy and create jobs for the youth.
The DAILY GRAPHIC counsels the service providers and the government to use dialogue to find a common ground for the way forward now that Parliament has unanimously approved the financial policy of the government.
Industry players and the government should work out the modalities for collecting the tax, while Parliament ought to perform its mandatory role of holding the purse string of the government so that the Executive will apply the taxes to aid national development.