Exempting senior citizens from paying property rate commendable – ChaLoG

The Chamber for Local Governance (ChaLoG) has commended the former President John Dramani Mahama and National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer, for including in its manifesto the exemption of pensioners and senior citizens from paying Property Rate Tax.

Mr Romeo Elikplim Akahoho, the Executive Secretary of ChaLoG, said “ChaLoG especially commends the NDC Flagbearer for what we consider to be a thoroughly thought through, forward looking and highly empathetic policy proposal meant to drastically reduce the financial burden on pensioners and senior citizens as they are no longer in active service.”

Mr Akahoho in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the policy proposal was timely and would be a perfect intervention to grant them some modicum of relief, in the face of the debilitating Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), that has gravely eroded the savings and gains of pensioners and senior citizens across the country.

“ChaLoG can further confirm that most Metropolitan/Municipal/District Assemblies (MMDAs) have also been struggling to collect property rate tax from this category of rate payers over the years.”

He added that most MMDAs had to sometimes resort to legal suits to compel some of these pensioners and senior citizens to make payments.

“It is against this backdrop, that ChaLoG warmly welcomes the policy proposal of His Excellency John Dramani Mahama and the NDC which undoubtedly will spare pensioners and senior citizens, the embarrassing spectacle they had had to go through on a yearly basis,” he said.

ChaLoG called on the NDC and its flag bearer to ensure they prioritised the strict implementation of the policy proposal, when they formed the next government in January 2025.

This would go a long way to spare pensioners and senior citizens the ordeal of having to be subjected to needless lawsuits, and peacefully and soundly live in their pension homes.

Source: GNA