Month: September 2012

Parliament on Wednesday adopted a report of the Committee of Subsidiary Legislation on transfer pricing regulations, 2012 (L.I.2188), meant to provide the framework for effective application of transfer pricing in the country.

Transfers pricing regulations, 2012 (L.1. 2188) was laid in the house on Tuesday, July 31, 2012 in accordance with Article 11 (7) of the Constitution and referred to the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation for consideration and report pursuant to Order 77 and 166 of the Standing Order of the House.

Mr Felix Abayateye, Vice Chairman of the Committee, who read the report, said the absence of an extensive transfer regulation has led to inadequate taxation of significant number of transactions conducted between related enterprises.

Mr Abayateye noted that the implementation of the pricing regime will allow for a more flexible determination of taxable incomes.

Tax payers will be permitted to choose appropriate transfer pricing methods specified by the Instrument. These methods are the comparable Uncontrolled Price Method, the resale Price methods, the cost plus method, the profit method, and the transactional net margin method.

Tax payers will also be allowed to use other methods aside those specified under the Instrument upon application to the Ghana Revenue Authority, the Vice Chairman said.

“This arrangement would go a long way to boost compliance for optimum benefit”.

According to the report, over the years, Ghana attracted foreign direct investments from multinational enterprise due to the country’s democratic credentials, resources availability, and favourable tax regimes among other positive considerations.

The companies can be found in all sectors of the economy including transport, communications, banking, insurance, real estates and manufacturing.

Statistics from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning indicates about 80 per cent of multinational companies have been incorporated as subsidiaries while 20 per cent are registered as branches of foreign companies within the last five years.

He said though these companies contribute their tax revenue, the country continues to lose substantial amount of revenue through under-invoicing and tax avoidance especially as a result of transactions between multinational companies and their subsidiaries.

The Ghana Revenue Authority has been responding to these challenges by employing the avenues for transfer pricing under the Internal Revenue Act, 2000 (Act 592).

GNA

Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, New Patriotic Party (MP) for Sunyani West Constituency, aspiring to retain the seat, on Sunday launched his campaign with a call on the electorate to vote for him on December 7.

Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, NPP MP for Afigya Sekyere, advised Ghanaians to evaluate their standards of living to enable them to determine which party to vote for in Election 2012.

He said current the economic hardship in the country, indicated that the National Democratic Congress had nothing new to offer the citizenry.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said there should be no way the December 7 polls should be characterised with hostilities if Ghanaians definitely wanted to see remarkable improvement in their standards of living, a path the NPP had chosen to follow.

He reminded the electorate that under former President John Agyekum Kufuor’s Government, the road, agriculture, health and education sectors expereinced massive improvements.

Mr Addae Nimo, NPP MP for Mampong, appealed to NPP supporters to undertake house-to-house campaign, to explain the party’s manifesto to the people, especially those at the grassroots.

He called on NPP supporters to avoid inflammable remarks during their electioneering.

GNA

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembelle, Mr.Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah has inspected work on a-47-kilometer cocoa growing road linking the Northern part of the district popularly referred to as Aiyinasi-North.

The completed project, now affords the predominantly cocoa farmers in the area, the opportunity to cart their cocoa produce easily to Nkroful, the district capital, through to Takoradi.

Hitherto, produce from their cocoa farms was transported from Asomase to Kwesikrom, then to Prestea Huni Valley to Tarkwa before reaching Ellembelle district.

He assured the people of the area that government will continue providing amenities and infrastructural development to improve their living conditions.

Mr. Buah, who doubles as the Deputy Minister for Energy, asked the people to retain the NDC in power in the December 07 general elections to lend more credence to its Better Ghana Agenda and used the occasion to explain government policies to them.

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Ellembelle, Mr. Daniel K. Eshun said cocoa formed a greater percentage of the district Assembly’s revenue and was happy that the cocoa growing areas are now motorable to ease the transportation burden on farmers.

GNA

The Majority in Parliament has strongly objected to the allegation by the minority that the ruling NDC government and the majority caucus are manipulating the Electoral Commission in the creation of the 45 new constituencies.

According to the group, it is only helping the EC in the discharge of its constitutional duty.

The minority on Wednesday accused the EC of being in bed with government after the Commission supervised parliamentary primaries for the ruling party in the yet to be created 45 new constituencies.

The minority was of the view that it was too close a time to the general election for new constituencies to be created.

Addressing the press in Accra, the Majority Leader Cletus Avoka accused the NPP minority of confusing the public and causing anxiety among the population with regards to the creation of the new constituencies.

He said the EC has maintained that it has the capacity, ability and time at its disposal to incorporate the 45 new constituencies into the December 2012 election and that the minority has no reason to doubt their assurance and commitment.

Hon. Avoka assured all Ghanaians that the majority caucus will do everything possible to build consensus with the minority in parliament and all other stakeholders to ensure a free, fair and peaceful election come December 2012.

Kwadwo Anim/Ghanamps.gov.gh

The Majority in Parliament on Friday cautioned the Minority on the need for national cohesion as the country approached the December Elections, urging them not to “unnecessarily beat war drums when there is no semblance of war”.

They said, recent issues raised by the Minority giving the impression that government was coercing the Electoral Commission (EC) to create 45 new constituencies to favour the ruling national Democratic Congress, was “false” and that that stance could incite the people against government and undermine Ghana’s democratic processes and the integrity of the EC in successfully conducting the impending elections.

The majority was reacting to Tuesday’s press conference by the Minority, where they expressed reservations on the propriety of creating 45 new constituencies barely three months to an important election, alleging that the Government and the Majority caucus was “in bed” with the EC.

“There is no iota of truth or shred of evidence that the NDC government and the NDC Majority caucus is coercing or manipulating the EC in this regard”, said Majority Leader Cletus Avoka at a press conference at Parliament.

“The EC is merely exercising or fulfilling its constitutional obligation in creating the new 45 constituencies…It (EC) has maintained that it has the capacity, the ability and time at its disposal to incorporate the 45 new constituencies into the December 2012 Elections and we have no reason to doubt their assurance and commitment“.

“The EC has a proven track record in this enterprise and we would rather appeal and advise all stakeholders including the NPP and it Minority group in Parliament to co-operate with the EC to ensure an incident free polls in December 2012”.

Mr Avoka said that the EC had the sole mandate of creating or demarcating constituencies in the country as prescribed by Articles 45 and 47 of the 1992 constitution and not the Executive or the Legislature.

He explained that the controversial Constitutional Instrument (CI73) changed into CI77 when the Instrument was sent to the government publisher-Assembly Press- for printing and gazetting as demanded under Article 11 of the Constitution and Regulation 77 of the House’s Standing Orders.

The Majority Leader said officers at the publishing house decided to re-number the CI as 77 because the original CI 73 that was laid in Parliament on July 17, 2012 was faulted and withdrawn and thus replacing the Instrument necessitated another number.

He said the Assembly Press held that maintaining the same numbering of the CI could have distorted the public record as well as confuse the public, though the Instrument dealt with the same subject of creation of new constituencies.

Subsequently, the Speaker of Parliament, Joyce Bamford Addo, requested the EC to correct anomalies that were detected in the corrected CI 77, which the EC obliged and returned the document to Parliament for relaying.

The Instrument was sent to the Assembly Press on September 4, 2012 for gazetting and publishing and was given the serial number CI78.

Mr Avoka said the creation of the 45 new constituencies would enhance participatory democracy and good governance in the country, and would enable MPs have manageable numbers of constituents to interact with, and thus balance development across the country.

He gave the assurance that the Majority would endeavour to build consensus with the Minority in Parliament and all stakeholders to ensure free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections in December.

Mr Avoka noted that Ghanaians had given the NDC “the mandate to manage the vehicle called Ghana and drive it home safely”, adding, “Consequently let it not be inferred that there are some people who think or believe that they are ordained to be rulers of Ghana and hence must always be in the driving seat”

“They are only passengers and we assure them that we will drive them home safely. I entreated all opinion leaders to call for peace, co-operation and unity of purpose between now and December Election and Thereafter”. GNA