By Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
Members of the Ghana Real Estate Developers’ Association (GREDA), are calling for the scraping of the 17.5% Value Added Tax (VAT) on immovable properties ahead of the 2024 Mid-year budget review scheduled for Tuesday, July 23, 2024.
Sector players in the Real estate space are lamenting over the government’s reintroduction of a 17.5% VAT on the sale of immovable properties and want it to be scraped during the Mid-year budget review.
According to them the reintroduction of a 17.5% VAT on the sale of immovable properties is hindering sector growth and criticise the lack of consultation before its reintroduction.
They urged the government to abolish the tax as part of its commitment to refrain from introducing additional taxes in the mid-year budget review scheduled for Tuesday, July 23, 2024.
The Executive Secretary for the GREDA, Mr. Samuel Amegayibor in an interview said: “They never engaged us. All of a sudden, there is a directive that the tax should be implemented, and then they have gone ahead to develop guidelines without a major stakeholder like GREDA.
So how do you expect us to be your agent of tax collection and you don’t involve us in the guidelines, and then you just snap on us? I was surprised. I saw a copy of this guideline just last night,” he noted.
Mr. Amegayibor added: “As the Executive Secretary of GREDA, I have not seen what my sector is supposed to help implement for the government to make revenue. Then what are we doing? I think these are some of the things that we are talking about.
