Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has mentioned that the passage of the Growth and Sustainability Bill will cripple the banking sector.
Parliament on Friday, March 31, 2023, approved 3 key tax amendment bills geared at raking in an additional 3.96 billion cedis revenue this year and satisfying a key requirement for the IMF to approve a 3 billion dollar bailout.
Contributing to a discussion in Parliament, Dr Ato Forson says the bill will equally affect the operations of upstream oil and gas companies and mining companies.
“The imposition of the tax is that the government is going to impose a 5 per cent tax on banks
Already banks are paying corporate income tax of 25 per cent.
Mr Speaker, clearly Ghanaian banks are struggling.
I have with me a document by Fitch Solutions., and the title is, Ghanaian banks to suffer considerably in the year 2023. Mr Speaker the details is mind-boggling.
Ghanaian banks are going to suffer in terms of corporate property.
Already banks are suffering from insolvency and liquidity, the least you can do is to impose additional taxes on Ghanaian banks. This tax is so levied on gross profit and I am of the firm belief that this is not the time to introduce an additional tax that will burden banks,” He said.
Chairman of the Finance Committee, Kwaku Kwarteng on the other hand says, the new tax will go a long way to shore up domestic revenue.
He said, “This is to support our effort to improve domestic revenue so that this country can have a more stable economy.”
