Government must widen tax net to involve all business – SME operators
Small scale business operators have appealed to the government to widen the tax net to cover all businesses to ensure a fair level playing field for the business community.
They called for fairness and equity in the payment of tax as the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) are over burdened in the payment of tax .
The business people said major companies, which should pay more tax, rather enjoy tax exemption to the detriment of SME.
Representatives of SMEs expressed the concern at a pre-budget forum in Takoradi and mentioned specifically multinational companies such as the mining companies that make a lot of money yet they are exempted from tax payment.
They also also spoke against companies operating in the Free Zone Enclave that are also exempted from tax as well as some local businesses that evade tax payment.
The pre-budget forum was organized by the Ghana branch of the Price Waterhouse Cooppers International Limited (PWC) to collate views and suggestions from Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) for consideration and factor into the 2012 national budget statement.
It was held on the theme “expectations of stakeholders in our evolving economy”.
Some of the SMEs suggested the formation of a body that would complement the existing bodies to monitor tax payment in the country in order to bring all onto the mainstream.
Other concerns raised included high interest rates and duties and called for a clear policy on the local content in the oil and gas sector.
They said they were not happy that foreigners had taken over jobs that could be done by local people and called for a reversal of the trend in other to keep Ghanaians in business.
The PWC said the attainment of middle-income status required that the living standards of the citizenry be improved and this calls for seriousness of all Ghanaians to contribute their quota to the developnment of the country.
Mr Felix Addo, Country Senior Partner, expressed optimism that the government would work with the suggestions and views put across as was done in the previous budget that captured some of their contributions.
He mentioned the improvement of the threshold tax from GH¢50 to GH¢500.
Source: GNA