News:
July 12, 2021
Ranking Member on Road and Transport Governs Kwame Agbodza said domestic airline tickets would be more affordable to Ghanaians if government takes off taxes of their spare parts to reduce their cost.
According to him International Airlines enjoy these incentives but it is the choice of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government to fully activate that incentive, but all they say is they are in talks with the airline operators.
He further pointed out in an interview that, there are companies in Ghana that are enjoying huge tax wavers despite the fact that they have been in Ghana for some time and making profit like B5 Steel Company.
“Again, currently we are giving fourteen million tax exemptions, if that money were to be paid by B5 Plus for instance it would make their work more expensive, why can’t we do same for the domestic airlines?”, he queried.
Government can burn backwards and give sweetness to domestic airlines operators, fortunately almost all of them are significantly Ghanaian owned, government can put in a few more things to entice them to ply routes like Ho, Wa and others, he said.
As if there is the need to connect more domestic airports, he noted that government can do more in terms of incentives, hence the reason why free zones was created to give companies number of years not to pay tax.
And further noted that it is critical for making terminal three at the Kotoka International Airport more viable because, it would help same Ghanaians to catch up flights to their international destinations.
He made this remarks in the wake of the opening of the Ho Airport to domestic flight, and in his opinion things that can be done to make domestic air ticket affordable to the average Ghanaian.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com