The progress being made by the government in negotiations to increase its stake in the extractive sector is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Tuesday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the Deputy Minister, Dr John AmpontuahKumah, has said that the government is making progress in negotiations to increase its stake in the extractive sector.
He said the move was in line with government policy to deliberately increase the country’s shareholdings in mining and oil and gas companies.
Dr Kumah, who disclosed this in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the launch of the 2019 Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) Report, also said the exit of some companies from the extractive sectors as part of the global energy transition agenda through which some Western countries were shifting from hydrocarbons to other forms of clean energy, had created the need for the country to control interest in the extractive sector.
He said the government holding controlling interest in oil and gas would help the country to accrue more revenue from the sector.
Dr Kumah said GNPC this year had taken steps to increase our controlling interest in some of the oil and gas companies.
Asked if the government had any strategy to help the country rake in more revenue from the extractive sector, the Deputy Minister responded that the GHETI Report would help the government to have a full picture of what is happening in the sector to inform government policy decisions.
Dr Kumah, however, said the extractive sector was one of the sectors which was hardest hit by COVID-19, and therefore, there was a limit government could take from the sector.
The newspaper says that the Minister of Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has indicated that tariff increases for the Electricity Company of Ghana is not an option for now.
Rather, he said, the company was being encouraged to cut down on its losses as well as put in the necessary mechanisms to efficiently collect monies for what it had supplied already before issues of increases are considered.
“I can assure you that we are resisting the calls for increased tariff till we sought out our losses. The more we sought out our losses, the more we can probably decide whether we have to or we must increase the tariffs. But first, if you are losing so much, how do you convince me that I should let you increase tariffs,” he emphasised.
Dr Opoku Prempeh disclosed this in Accra on Wednesday, when he took his turn at the weekly Minister’s Press Briefing organised by the Ministry of Information.
Speaking on the theme: “Keeping the lights on, keeping the nation moving,” Dr Opoku Prempeh said the losses to ECG are occasioned by the inability or unwillingness to pay.
To stop this, he said the ECG had re-launched its National Revenue Protection Taskforce.
He explained that the sole objective of the taskforce was to help identify power theft as well as recover debt across consumers in the country.
Dr Opoku Prempeh noted that the ECG made on the average a loss of GH₵ 3.2billion or its equivalent of $400million per annum.
The Ghanaian Times also reports that all taxpayers have been urged to file their tax returns for 2021 with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) by end of April 2022 to ensure compliance of the tax laws and promote revenue mobilisation.
This, according to Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance, was in line with the Income Tax Act 2015 (Act 896) and the Revenue Administration Act 2016 (Act 915), which enjoined taxpayers to file their tax returns with the Commissioner-General, GRA not later than four months after the year of assessment return of income for the year.
He said the filing of tax returns would further ensure that all income earners come into the tax net and contribute to national development to achieve the “Ghana beyond Aid” agenda.
This was contained in a speech read on his behalf at the launch of this year’s “Tax and Good Governance Week” in Accra last Thursday.
On the theme “Filing Tax Returns Online: The Convenient Way,” the event was aimed at increasing awareness among organisations and individuals on the importance of filing their annual tax returns, paying taxes and complying with tax laws.
Some activities such as tax clinics, radio and TV discussions and tax education at schools and faith-based organisations have been earmarked for the celebration.
Mr Ofori-Atta said the 2022 filing of tax returns was being done on the developed application “taxpayers’ portal” and commended the efforts of the GRA for digitising the operational processes.
The portal, he stated was a secured tax management tool which enabled taxpayers to file their returns, initiate payments, apply for refunds, and undertake cashless policy and other transactions with ease and convenience.
The digital operational processes of the GRA, he said would help in the realisation of the GH¢80.3 billion revenue target for the year 2022.
The Graphic says that Cowpea production rate and planted area have declined over the past 10 years in Ghana due to pest infestation, Dr Jerry Nboyine of CSIR-Savanna Agriculture Research Institute (SARI), has disclosed.
According to him, pest infestation has discouraged many cowpea farmers from farming the crop in the country, noting that pest infestation has made cowpea farming highly unattractive and also highly costly, hence many cowpea farmers turning their focus on other crops.
Dr Jerry Nboyine said this in an interview with Graphic Online on the sidelines of one-day sensitisation workshop organised by OFAB-Ghana chapter for some staff of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) in Accra on April 11, 2022.
The purpose of the workshop was to bring clarity on Genetically Modified (GM) technology activities in Ghana and the status of work done on a GM product—Pod Borer Resistant (PBR) cowpea within CSIR in Ghana.
Dr Nboyine, who is an expert in cowpea breeding said because of pests, when farmers planted cowpea, “they need to spend a lot to buy chemicals to spray” and that “even when farmers are able to afford the chemicals, labour to spray the chemicals all go against them.”
Speaking on the topic: “The story so far: processes of development and status of PBR cowpea in Ghana,” he noted that the cost of production for cowpea was much higher than many other crops due to pests and pointed that many cowpea farmers are now farming maize.
He explained, for instance, that in some cowpea farming communities he visited in the Savelugu Municipality in the Northern region, almost half of the farmers have stopped cultivating cowpea.
Dr Nboyine added that in some communities, the farmers have stopped cultivating cowpea entirely, describing the situation as worrying and needed to be addressed urgently.
For him, the situation whereby cowpea farmers are leaving the sector to farm other crops would mean that government would have to spend more money to import more cowpea into the country.
GIK/APA