The confirmation by Finance Minister that the country lost about GH¢27 billion to tax exemptions granted some businesses between 2008 and 2020 and the report of the increase in reported human trafficking cases in Ghana are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Graphic reports that the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has confirmed that the country lost about GH¢27 billion to tax exemptions granted some businesses between 2008 and 2020.
The amount translates to about GH¢2.2 billion surrendered in tax waivers each year for the 12-year period.
Addressing Parliament last Friday, the Finance Minister also said since 2008, it was only in 2020 that the lost revenue declined to about GH¢1.8 billion.
“It is true, as Ranking Member mentioned, that some GH¢27 billion had been lost to tax exemptions.
“This brings into focus the need for all of us to protect the public purse. That is an important social re-engineering for us, as we lose revenue on many fronts,” he said.
“However, for this year, Ghana will likely make some savings of GH¢460 million on tax exemptions,” Mr Ofori-Atta added.
The minister gave the confirmation after a Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei-Asare, had moved a motion for the second reading of the Tax Exemptions Bill, 2020.
The bill, which was considered under a certificate of urgency by the Finance Committee, when passed, will set clear eligibility criteria for tax exemptions and provide for the monitoring, evaluation and enforcement of exemptions.
It will also provide a regulatory regime for monitoring tax exemptions to ensure that exemptions granted are used for the intended purposes, as well curtail the abuse of the existing exemption regime.
The newspaper says that there has been an increase in reported human trafficking cases in the country, a study by ActionAid Ghana has indicated.
It found 46-per cent increase in reported human trafficking cases between 2020 and 2021.
The study, titled: “Baseline study on combatting modern slavery in Ghana project (CMSP)”, also showed that 80 per cent of the trafficked victims were children while 20 per cent were adults.
It also identified child labour and long working hours as the most common forms of modern slavery in the study districts.
The study further indicated that between 2020 and 2021, a total of 2,103 Ghanaians and 648 other nationals were trafficked from the country
ActionAid Ghana, an international nongovernmental organisation with footprints in Ghana, therefore, called on the government to resource antimodern slavery institutions to help clamp down on the practice in the country.
ActionAid Ghana, which works against poverty and injustice worldwide, in partnership with the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) with funding support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation launched the ‘Combatting Modern Slavery in Ghana’ Project in September 2021 to help identify, prevent and address child and forced labour within the agricultural sector, including children and women involved in agricultural plantations under conditions of servitude.
The project through strategic advocacy and empowerment interventions seeks to reduce the incidence of modern slavery within the agricultural sector in four regions, 12 districts and 100 communities in the country.
The project will be implemented from January 2021 to December 2023.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) has allayed the fear of a looming food shortage in the country and expresses optimism of enough rainfall to ensure food increase in the country.
According to the ministry, a recent visit to five regions in the forestry zones revealed a lot of farmers had really invested in their farms in spite of challenges the country was facing.
The Director of Crops Services of the MoFA, Mr Seth Osei-Akoto, disclosed these to the Ghanaian Times in an interview at a farmers’ field day on Concept Green Organic Powder Fertiliser, at the weekend.
Concept Green is an organic fertiliser made in Germany that is to be packaged in Ghana.
It is expected to reduce the burden of farmers purchasing high cost of inorganic fertilisers imported by the government.
He said, “I was surprised to see that in spite of the challenges Ghana is experiencing as a country, farmers have really gone to their farms, and with the rainfall we are now experiencing, there will be enough food, there will be no food crisis.”
Mr Osei-Akoto indicated that in Ghana, the talk of food was the reliance on legumes, plantains, cassava, yams, sorghum, cowpea, rice, soybeans, and others, “and putting these together, with the rains in now, there is nothing like looming food crisis in the country.”
On the Concept Green fertiliser, the Director of Crops Services mentioned that it was good news for farmers in the country, saying that “apart from it being low cost as it is packaged in Ghana, it could also ensure high yield of crops.”
The newspaper says that Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has launched the National Electronic Pharmacy Platform (NEPP) which aims to give the public the opportunity to access pharmaceutical services remotely, using mobile phones or computers with internet.
The major pharmaceutical companies in the country provide retail services on the E-platform to customers upon request from any part of the country.
“This convenient means of purchasing pharmaceutical services has many benefits,” Vice President Bawumia said when he launched the NEEP in Accra yesterday.
Among the many benefits of the platform, aside from the convenience of purchasing drugs and getting them delivered to customers, is the possibility of using the platform to eradicate fake and substandard drugs from the pharmaceutical ecosystem.
“The Pharmacy Council and its allied partners have been working closely on ways to bring improvement in the sale and distribution of medicines while protecting consumers. After years of planning and preparation it has yielded results,” he said.
Commending the stakeholders for their commitment to make the platform a success, he said contactless pharmaceutical services was a promising sector globally.
“Most often, people are faced with the difficulty of finding efficient and reliable pharmacies. The situation has led to pharmacy operators preying on the vulnerability of patients to inflate prices or offer fake substitutes for the medication sought,” he said.
GIK/APA