STMA to take a decision on “kaya tax”… – John Davis

Presiding Member of the Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA), Jon Sampson Davis has said the assembly would meet to review some of the tolls the central government sees as “nuisance taxes”.

This follows the announcement by the Finance Minister Mr. Ken Ofori Atta to scrap taxes the current government deems as “nuisance”.

Asked whether there are some nuisance taxes like the “kaya tax”, and what the STMA is doing about it; Mr. Davis told Melody News’ Joe Bright, “…yes there is something like the “kaya tax” for the hawkers….we will definitely meet and take a decision on it.”

Local assemblies like the STMA rely on internally generated funds to augment their budgets. Many fall short of innovations to mobilize revenue especially from the informal sector of the local economy.

The Presiding Member of the STMA admitted there are some challenges with revenue mobilization: “you see, some of the people don’t know why they are paying the amounts they are paying, so we still need to do some education”

Meanwhile, Former Finance Minister, Seth Terpker, has criticized the proposed abolishment of taxes charged on head porters (Kayayei), suggesting that the pronouncement was misplaced. During the maiden presentation of the current administration’s national budget on Thursday, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, announced some taxes to be abolished as a way of encouraging the growth of the private sector. Mr Ofori-Atta said taxes charged on the ‘head porters’ were unproductive taxes that needs to be scrapped.