Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, has reiterated that businesses and individuals will have a clean tax slate under his Presidency in 2025, to usher in a new tax system.

During his maiden address to the nation as flagbearer of the NPP, Dr Bawumia announced that his government would introduce a new friendly tax regime aimed at boosting businesses and making the private sector competitive.

At a stakeholder interaction with members of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Accra, Dr Bawumia underscored the need for a new tax regime to aid his vision of carrying the private sector along, if he becomes President in 2025.

"Our tax system has been the same since independence and it has not helped us so we have to change it," he said.

"We are going to have a new tax system. It is going to be a flat tax system to ensure competitiveness and business friendliness. To usher in the new tax regime, there will be tax amnesty for individuals and businesses 2025 under my Government.”

"It will be a clean slate for everyone for us to start afresh," said the Vice President, amidst cheers from the business community. 

As part of Dr Bawumia's new tax system, he also stated that beginning 2025, under his Presidency, there will be no longer human interface in tax audits.

"We are also going to have a faceless tax audit to prevent harassment of businesses and corruption. And audit of any company cannot be more than once in five years unless there is a reason. This is what other countries are doing," he added.

"My vision is to make Ghana one of the most tax competitive countries in the world. I have studied many tax systems and recently, I went to Estonia, which is one of the most digitised and competitive tax countries in the world, to study their tax system. I believe it is possible for us to achieve that in Ghana and even be better.

The NPP Flagbearer also reietreated his pledge to abolish a few taxes as President, including taxes on electronic financial transactions.

"I will abolish certain taxes like the e-levy as I have said, because we want to encourage a cashless system."

For importers, Dr Bawumia also committed to his pledge of instituting a flat rate for the importation of spare parts as well as benchmarking Ghana's port charges with Togo, to be competitive.

"We can even be lower, to make Ghana the most competitive," he assured.

The Chamber, while making some suggestions to Dr Bawumia, commended him for his policies, and welcome, especially, his new tax regime of flat tax and tax amnesty for businesses and individuals, as well as his pledge to make the private sector the driving force of the Ghanaian economy.