Ghana’s unemployment rate a reflection of a high taxing regime – FABAG

The Chairman of the Food and Beverage Association of Ghana (FABAG), John Awuni, has bemoaned the high levels of taxes levied on businesses.

Speaking on the Oxfam Tax Dialogue on Citi TV on Thursday, March 21, John Awuni stated that the high levels of unemployment figures in the country is an indication of the regressive taxes levied on the business community.

“If you look at the levels of unemployment in the country, it speaks volumes about the lack of performance or poor performance in the private sector. The government is the biggest spender in every economy, but the private sector is also the biggest employer and so when you have this high pool of unemployment, we must take a look at our levels of taxes. I have a company that is supposed to employ 100 people, but I currently employ just 12 because of the tax issue.”

The FABAG chairman called for a revision of Ghana’s taxing regime and regulations to make it business-friendly and to help cut down on the unemployment figures.

“To assess the tax regime or give a verdict on the current tax regime, we have to look at the general purpose of taxation, and taxes have three focus which are the fiscal objective, the regulatory objective, and the stimulative objective.

“In our country, we are looking at a taxation that will have to stimulate growth and in macroeconomics, growth is the major objective and the private sector is the engine of growth and so the taxes should be such that they should be able to stimulate growth in the private sector but that is not the case because two years ago, we had the manufacturing sector growing at a negative rate.”

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