News:
March 24, 2014
Member of Parliament’s Select Committee on Finance, Benjamin Kpodo, has warned the country risk not being able to pay salary of workers in the near future if revenue generation and tax compliance are not improved.
According to him, debt servicing and salary currently consumes all revenue generated in the country, a situation that has prevented government from meeting its statutory payment obligations.
Benjamin Kpodo who is also the Member of Parliament for Ho Central in the Volta region told Joy News, challenges facing the country can only be done away with if revenue generation is improved.
He said “our pay as you earn which we collect from workers in this country is far higher than the revenue we get from oil. How do we raise additional revenue from internal sources so as to execute our programme, so as to support our domestic activities.”
According to him, the Ghanaian economy currently has two major items that “we have as fixed cost- the wage bill and then the debt service expenditure and you cannot avoid them.”
Mr. Kpodo therefore called on Ghanaians to rally behind the government in its attempt to stabilize the economy.
“There is a lot of money which we can collect as tax based on the existing rate within the economy which we are not collecting. So if we tackle that and we stop being petty,” with the opposition always kicking against such measures, it will help the country.
The Ho Central MP wondered how people want the president to perform and “yet you want to bind his hands too. You don’t want to support his policies.”
myjoyonline.com