By Edzorna Francis Mensah
The Minority Leader, Dr. Casel Ato Forson, urged Ghanaians to brace up for more hardships from the government.
He said the government promised to reduce electricity tariffs but has ended up ‘making us pay more for electricity’ by imposing VAT on domestic consumption of electricity
Dr. Ato in a statement to the media said, people should get ready to pay 21.9 % more on their electricity consumption in the middle of a new dumsor, which “Dr. Bawumia and the government have cowardly failed to admit”.
According to him, this VAT on domestic consumption of electricity is a final tax as he submitted that, “the Finance Minister’s statement, this Akufo-Addo/ Bawumia government has increased electricity prices by 21.9% by introducing VAT on domestic consumption of electricity, which will include the following: 15% VAT, 2.5% GetFund levy, 2.5% NHIL levy and 1% Covid levy.
The Minority Leader mentioned the fact that, since 2013, governments have refrained from imposing VAT on domestic consumption of electricity for very good reasons.
“Such an implementation was going to increase the cost of electricity to domestic consumers without allowing them to reclaim their VAT (because domestic consumers of electricity are not VAT registered)”, he added.