The Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Environment, Science and Technology and Innovation, Yaw Addo Frimpong, has proposed an increment to the Value Added Tax (TAX).
The revenue to be derived from the increased VAT percentage, he noted, should be used to address the teething sanitation challenges confronting the country which successive governments have not been able to address.
“I am proposing that if we add some small percentage on the VAT for sanitation, I don’t think any Ghanaian will kick against that idea. This is something that we will have national consensus so that everybody will come to agree with us that sanitation is the key and we are able to resolve it, everybody will be happy” he noted.
Hon. Frimpong, who is also the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Manso Adubia in the Ashanti Region, made this proposal when interacting with journalists moments after the Joint Select Committees of Parliament: Local Government & Rural Development, Works & Housing and Environment, Science and Technology and Innovation had toured the Integrated Recycling and Compost Plant Limited and the Sewage Systems Ghana Limited in Accra on Wednesday, September 11, 2019.
The Committees had toured the facilities to ascertain how best the country could address its sanitation challenges, especially, the kind of support the government could give to captains of industry in the private sector.
Hon. Frimpong commenting further said he is very optimistic that his proposed idea will work ‘magic’ for the country.
“All landfill sites something happens underground where you damp the waste. We don’t want to have all these things. Maybe in 50 to 60 years time, all our lands will he taken by landfill sites. The population is increasing, 2.5% annually and we need to come out with ideas that can resolve our sanitation problems and these are some of the things that all of us must come together to push”, he underscored.
However, a cross section of the general public see Hon. Frimpong’s proposal as something that the government has thought about and intends introducing it in the 2020 Budget.
“It is a very nice idea but I bet you it is something that the government is planning to introduce in the 2020 Budget. What Hon. Frimpong said is to test the waters to see the reaction of the public. If the people accept it, the government will go ahead to introduce it. If they reject it, that will be the end”, Ernest Quartey, a resident at Korle Gonno told this portal.
