Teachers request Parliament to treat minimum tax threshold issue urgently
The leadership of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) on Thursday held discussions with President John Evans Atta Mills, and asked Parliament to act without any further delay on the issue of minimum tax threshold.
According to GNAT, every effort should be made to get Parliament to pass the Bill on the tax threshold, which it believes would relieve workers of their present hardship, accusing Parliament of not making the issue one of its priority areas.
“The previous tax threshold of GH¢1,008 – 2010 Bill was never passed and as such, was never implemented”, Acting President of GNAT, Mr Samuel Alobuia, who led a delegation of the National Executives to the Osu Castle in Accra to pay a courtesy call on President Mills, said.
While commending the President for a number of programmes to improve the delivery of education, the GNAT Executives also stressed the need for Government to make a downward review of taxes on petroleum products to cushion its effect on workers.
Government should also widen the tax net to include workers in the informal sector to rake in more revenue, GNAT said.
Mr Alobuia commended Government for interventions to ensure quality and accessible education, but registered the complaints of teachers about the directive from the Ministry of Education for Junior High Schools to engage pupils for two extra hours without any extra remuneration to improve their performance in their final exams .
The Association also called for a quick redress of issues including the provision of a more suitable environment for teaching and learning, the payment of the Single Spine Salary, and a more effective National Health Insurance Scheme, and appealed to all political parties to conduct their campaign for the 2012 devoid of insults, intimidation and acrimony.
Responding, President Mills expressed Government’s appreciation to the teachers for their sacrifice in the development of the nation’s human resource.
He reassured them that as a social democratic Government, his administration was working hard to promote the welfare of the educator.
President Mills said in spite of the numerous problems, Government had made improvements like the replacement of “schools under trees” with brick and mortar and improving the welfare of teachers in a number of areas.
He called for effective collaboration between Government and teachers and said the issues raised would receive the needed attention.
President Mills said Government would do all it could to ensure peaceful elections in December, and to provide an atmosphere of peace for the nation to pursue its development agenda.
Source: GNA