The position of the Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) of Ghana, Dr. Yaw Baah, on the new taxes introduced by the government and the return of the Finance Minister-designate from the US after medical treatment are some of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Graphic reports that the Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) of Ghana, Dr. Yaw Baah, says he expects the new taxes introduced by the government to be taken off once things return to normal.
He said while he acknowledged that it was regressive to rely on indirect taxes to develop a country, the exigencies of the times had necessitated the action from the government, stressing that the taxes should be scrapped once things improved.
“I take it that the taxes that have been imposed are a way of getting out of the crisis because we are not in normal times.
“If we are not in normal times, we cannot use normal ways of getting out of it, and once we get out of the crisis, I don’t foresee these taxes continuing forever,” he said yesterday when he addressed the media after the opening ceremony of the third quadrennial youth delegates congress of the TUC in Kumasi.
The congress, dubbed: “75 years of TUC — Building stronger unions in a changing world of work”, is being attended by about 200 delegates made up of young workers of the 18 affiliate national unions of the TUC.
The event will discuss and decide on thorny policy issues for young workers.
Dr. Baah said to bring the issue up to the fore, the policy discussion of the upcoming congress of the TUC would focus on how the “government and all of us as social partners should work together to create jobs for young people.
“That is the only way unions will exist for the next 75 years and beyond,” he said.
The newspaper says that the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has assured that the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and has therefore encouraged everybody to participate in the vaccination programme in Ghana, as the country moves into the next phase of the vaccination.
Beginning Monday, March 22, 2021, all health workers in other districts and regions in Ghana are to be vaccinated.
The Director General of the GHS, Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboagye, explained that approximately 90,000 health workers are being targeted in this next phase of the vaccination programme in Ghana.
This, according to him, includes both public and private sector health workers and that their names and locations have been vetted and each district will have two sites for vaccination “and we are hoping that within a week, or two weeks, all health workers would have been covered across the country.”
Addressing a press briefing Sunday afternoon, Dr. Kuma Aboagye said Ghana was still pursuing additional vaccines as well as sustaining the public education on adherence to safety protocols and vaccine uptake.
“I’m sure we are all asking when the next vaccines are coming,” he said.
The Graphic also reports that the COVID-19 Health Levy introduced by the government in the 2021 Budget Statement is not for the free water and electricity which was enjoyed by Ghanaians in 2020, the Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said.
At a press briefing on Sunday afternoon, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said the claim that the government has said that people have to pay for the free water and electricity was false.
“You know that government has never said that you have to pay for the free water and electricity,” he said.
Rather, “the COVID levy is not for free water and electricity. For the avoidance of doubt, the Ministry of Finance’s statement [ATTACHED BELOW] deals with it but if you also go into the budget, if you go to page 58… of the full document, it outlines the uses of the COVID levy.”
Mr Oppong Nkrumah explained that the budget outlines what government has done with the COVID programme, listed it all in the budget and goes on to make the point that to provide a requisite resource to sustain the implementation of these measures government is proposing the introduction of a COVID-19 Health Levy of one percentage point increase in the National Health Insurance Levy and one percentage point increase in the VAT Flat Rate for that purpose.”
The Daily Guide says that the Finance Minister-designate, Ken Ofori Atta, is back from the US where he had been taking Coronavirus complications treatment.
Mr. Ofori Atta, who had been on treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, US, arrived in Ghana on Saturday, March 20, 2021.
According to reports, he has met with President Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House upon his arrival.
The Finance Minister-designate left the country on February 14, 2021 for the US and was rumored dead.
GIK/APA