The concern expressed by President Akufo-Addo about the impact of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on the safety and evacuation of Ghanaians and also on oil prices dominates the headlines of Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Graphic reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has expressed concern about the impact of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on the safety and evacuation of Ghanaians and also on oil prices.
In that regard, he has urged students and other Ghanaians in Ukraine to seek help at government places of shelter.
The President said that was to ensure their temporary safety as the government “engages the authorities, our relevant diplomatic missions and our honorary consul on further measures.”
The government places of shelter include Ghana’s mission in that country, other buildings belonging to the government in that country, the diplomatic buildings of countries with whom Ghana has a bilateral agreement to fall on as safety place, properties belonging to ECOWAS and the African Union.
While President Akufo-Addo expressed concern about the potential loss of lives and the safety of Ghanaians, he was equally frustrated by the effect of the conflict on global crude oil prices and its resultant effect on the economy of the country.
In a message conveyed on his behalf by the Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, President Akufo-Addo said at a time when the world was dealing with rising energy prices and supply-demand imbalances in several precious metals and commodity markets, a steady supply of crude from Russia was crucial.
“This means that fuel prices in the country are contingent on the ongoing conflict and likely to negatively impact Ghanaians, who, for apparent reasons, are already facing spikes in fuel prices,” he added.
The newspaper says that Ghana’s housing deficit has for the first time decreased, the Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim has disclosed.
Prof Annim said the country had recorded a decrease in the national housing deficit which has dropped by 33 percentage points (over 1.8 million units).
Presenting the 2021 Population and Housing Census on Thursday [February 24, 2022] in Accra, Prof Annim said the decrease could be attributed to interventions in the housing sector by the government and private developers.
However, he said the findings by the Ghana Statistical Service did not consider the quality and affordability implications of the decrease.
“One area that has attracted a lot of policy concern is housing deficit. Since our independence in 1960, we have seen an upward trend in the housing deficit inching up over the last 50 year period from 1960 to 2010 from a figure 1 million to 2.8 million.
“For the first time, we’ve seen a reversal in the housing deficit by 33 percentage points, this points to possibly some of the interventions that are happening both from the governmental point of view and the private sector point of view.
“We are happy that some interventions are happening but we are short of the fact that this analysis does not provide us the quality implications and the affordability implications of these housing units”.
Presenting other highlights of the Census Report on housing, Prof Annim said residential structures had increased in the last decade by 72.8 per cent (from 3,392,745 in 2010 to 5,862,890 in 2021) with variations by type of locality and region.
He said the number of dwelling units increased nearly three-fold to 10,006,420 units since the first Population and Housing Census in 2000.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the governments of Japan and Ghana yesterday signed three grant agreements covering $ 269,141 for health and education projects in some parts of the country.
The projects, under the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGHSP), would benefit about 17,000 people in the Bono, Ahafo and Central regions.
The first agreement, worth $90,340 would fund the construction of a health centre at Bibianiha in the Jaman South Municipality in the Bono Region.
The second one, worth $90,426 would fund the construction of Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Compound at Amankwakrom in Asunafo South District, while $88,375 is for the construction of a classroom block at Aponapon in Twifo/ AtiMorkwa District in Central Region.
The Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mochizuki Hisanobu signed the agreements with the representatives of the beneficiary communities at a brief ceremony in Accra yesterday.
They are Christiana Akua Kunadu , Babianiha Municipality; Robert Agyemang-Nyantakyi, District Chief Executive of Twifo/ Atimorkwaa and Frank AdusePoku, DCE for Asunafo South.
According to Mr Hisanobu, Japan had over the years promoted a concept of human security that aimed to build a world where everyone could live freely through the protection and empowerment of individuals.
The newspaper says that to achieve government’s revenue target for 2022, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has outlined eight major tax strategies which include the taxing of e-commerce, gaming and betting industries in a move to increase domestic revenue collection.
This was announced by the Assistant Commissioner-General in charge of Research and Policy at the GRA, Alex Kombat, during the 2021 Financial Year Audit launch by the Ghana Audit Service.
He said the Authority will roll out four of the eight strategies: namely online filing of taxes by the large taxpayers; taxing the betting and gaming industry; electronically increase the value-added tax (VAT) penetration; as well as taxing e-commerce.
“We are going to start taxing betting and gaming from April1, 2022. Their activities are mostly online, and we have gotten some software that will help us to tax them,” he said.
The remaining strategies will focus on expanding the pay as you earn (PAYE) data by adding not less than two million new taxpayers, which should effectively increase taxpayers to about three million by the end of December 2022; meanwhile leveraging on property tax to increase rent tax by December 2022.
The GRA intends to intensify auditing of the extractive industry and intensify the conclusion of telcos audits by December 2022 – as well as introduce a debt to collection ratio of less than five percent or less by the close of December 2022.
The Authority, supported by Revenue Assurance and Compliance Enforcement (RACE), is expected to continue with its enhanced compliance measures to expand coverage and plug revenue leakages, given that revenue compliance and enforcement sit at the heart of domestic revenue mobilisation.
According to the 2022 budget, the modified taxation system introduced in 2015 through the Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896) is to provide a simplified system of tax compliance for the informal sector and small-scale individuals in business.
GIK/APA