The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry is warning of the collapse of many businesses in Ghana, following the signing into law the three new tax bills by President Akufo-Addo.

Parliament recently passed the three new tax bills – the Excise Duty and Excise Tax Stamp (Amendment) Bill, 2022, the Income Tax (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2022, and the Growth and Sustainability Levy Bill, 2022.

But this move, according to the Chief Executive of the Chamber, Mark Badu-Aboagye, is dangerous and would force many businesses to relocate to other countries.

“We are not happy, we are highly disappointed that this bill has been accented and has become a law. Actually, we sent a petition to the president of Ghana to at least give us a hearing, and also inform him about the difficulties we are going through and even forward some recommendations on how they can still get the revenue and also bring some relief to businesses”.

“But unfortunately the president [Akufo-Addo] has ignored all the concerns that we raised; so definitely, we are not happy but this does not take away the fact that these taxes are inimical and counterproductive and is not going to help businesses”, he lamented.

Cost of doing business too high

Mr. Badu-Aboagye pointed out that businesses are already overwhelmed with so many taxes and therefore any additional taxes will be inimical to their growth.

“We’ve made it clear that already, businesses are suffering. The cost of doing business is high, we have a lot of taxes that businesses are already paying, so any additional taxes to the existing tax is not going to be in the interest of businesses”.

He continued that research conducted by his outfit revealed that though business in Ghana are profit and growth oriented, too many taxes and rising interest rates have pushed them into loss positions.

“In fact, the research that we conducted not long ago indicated that businesses in Ghana are profit and growth oriented, but when these taxes and interest rates are factored in, then most of them begin to run at a loss. So with these taxes, businesses are going to collapse and others have started relocating…… those who would want to take advantage of better deserved conditions are relocating and businesses