The report that the Ghanaian government loses $6 billion every year to illicit financial flows through transfer pricing and under invoicing in the mining sector alone is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Times reports that curbing illicit financial flows will be one of the surest ways for the government to raise money to fund the budget and other development projects.
Dr Abdallah Ali-Nakyea, Senior Lecturer of University of Ghana Law School, alleged that in the mining sector alone, the government lost $6 billion every year to illicit financial flows through transfer pricing and under invoicing.
Speaking at the Multi-Stakeholder Business Integrity Forum organised by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local chapter of Transparency International, Dr. Ali-Nakyea, said there would be no need for government to borrow to meet the financial needs of the country if illicit financial flows from the country was nipped in the bud.
The programme, which was held under the auspices of the Dutch government and on the theme “Implications of the tax policies per the 2021 Budget Statement and Economic Policy on businesses in the phase of the COVID-19 pandemic,” brought together participants from the private sector, civil society and Ministries, Department and Agencies to discuss the effect the 2021 tax policies would have on businesses in the country.
Dr. Ali-Nakyea indicated that, the focus of the government over the years had been on taxes to raise more financial resources to finance its programmes instead of blocking the tax leakages.
He said the country’s revenue would not be enough if leakages in the tax administration were not dealt with.
He said the new taxes introduced in the 2021 budget of the government, such as the introduction of the Financial Sector Levy, Energy Sector Recovery Levy, Sanitation tax, would have serious repercussions on businesses and culminate in the increase in the prices of goods and services in the country.
The newspaper says that Ghana’s indigenous eCommerce and SMS messaging company, Hubtel.com has entered into a partnership with Visa, to expand access to seamless payments on its eCommerce platform.
This partnership with Visa provides consumers with access to more merchant services on Hubtel’s eCommerce platforms.
A statement issued by the company said it also allowed Hubtel to explore further innovative payment services such as “tap to phone,” amongst others, to reduce the dependency on cash, especially among small businesses.
The onset of the pandemic saw more Ghanaians turn to eCommerce as well as safe and secure marketplaces like Hubtel.com. This upsurge subsequently led to an increase in the usage of digital payments.
In partnering with Visa, Hubtel’s merchants will be able to access payments made by customers in real-time avoiding delays sometimes experienced in the settlement process.
In addition, consumers can count on Visa’s trusted security tools and solutions to make their transactions secure.
Country Manager for Visa Ghana, Adoma Peprah commenting on the partnership said, “Working with Hubtel is part of our overall strategy to eliminate barriers to global commerce for merchants and consumers. Through this partnership, we aim to help them navigate the exciting opportunities in payments, develop game-changing products that address real consumer challenges, and enhance their speed to market.”
“We believe that partnerships are key to strengthening Ghana’s innovation pipeline, drive emerging technologies and, over the long-term, safeguard the sustainable growth of the payment’s ecosystem,” Adoma added.
The Graphic reports that the Ministry of Energy has stated that there is no nationwide load shedding neither has there been an attempt to embark on one.
It said outages being carried out in some areas were to allow for the contractors to tie in their works into the existing transmission lines.
“It is, therefore, false to claim, as the Minority in Parliament has, that political pressure has been brought to bear on the publishing of a load shedding timetable,” the ministry said in a statement in reaction to a press conference by the Minority in Parliament last Wednesday.
At its press conference last Wednesday, the Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Mr. John Jinapor, alleged that the Ghana Grid Company had plans to publish a load shedding timetable for the country but was stopped by the government.
“What is even more disturbing is despite confirmation from GRIDCo a couple of weeks ago that the country will continue to experience these power outages into the foreseeable future for which reason they promised to publish a load management schedule, the anticipated schedule has since been put on hold due to political pressure from the Executive.”
He further urged the government to come clean on the real cause of the power challenges.
But the Energy Ministry, in its response in a statement, explained that some of the projects ongoing in Accra and Kasoa, for example, required outages for some days.
The newspaper says that the Electoral Commission (EC) has explained that open-competitive tendering and best procurement processes led to a reduction in the cost per voter in the 2020 elections.
Those processes, it explained, opened up for other companies to bid for the various components of procuring materials for the 2020 elections.
It said with the exception of the printing of ballot papers and the procurement of indelible ink and biometric devices which had security implications, all other forms of procurement were done openly through the newspapers.
While it cost GH¢75.57 ($13) per voter in the 2016 elections, the EC spent GH¢44.66 ($7.7) per voter in last year’s elections.
That made the commission make total savings of GH¢523,409,980 or $90,243,100.
Throwing more light on the cost reduction in an interview, the Deputy Commissioner of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Dr. Bossman Eric Asare, told the Daily Graphic that the reduction in the cost per voter was exactly 40.78 percent.
That, he said, was against the backdrop of the 2020 mass voters registration exercise and the creation of 10,000 additional polling stations to reduce congestion at polling stations in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He explained that the creation of 10,000 additional polling stations also led to the recruitment of more personnel.
Mr. Asare said the EC started the procurement process very early in 2020, and that almost all the items required for the elections, with the exception of the extremely sensitive materials, were procured through open competitive tender.
GIK/APA