The Ghana-Israel Business Chamber has cautioned government against reneging on agreed contracts with international companies even as it seeks to evaluate the impact of tax waivers given to such companies.
The General Secretary of the chamber, Edem Yevutsey believes businesses will hesitate to invest in Ghana if they feel that government cannot be trusted to honor previous agreements on tax waivers.
The comments follow a recent announcement by the Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei that cabinet was designing a policy to effectively manage the issue of tax waivers given to international companies.
But in an interview with Citi Business News, Mr. Yevutsey called on government to focus on aggressively widening its tax net to improve domestic revenue mobilization.
“Government needs to be cautious and also fair in dealing with the issue of tax waivers. Especially when government is taking steps that will have a retrospective effect or that will counter some already existing agreements. If you have already entered into an agreement with an international organization I am of the view that once the agreement is signed it should be respected.”
Mr. Yevutsey urged government to consider the impact that going back on an agreement will have on publicly listed international companies.
“Some of these international organizations report to the public in their countries because they are publicly listed back home. At the time we sign agreements, we must analyze the pros and cons of such agreements before agreeing. Regardless of which government signed an agreement it must be respected.”
Mr. Yevutsey was speaking on the sidelines of a Tax Masterclass workshop organized by the Chamber in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).
The event was used to upgrade the tax based knowledge of participants of the workshop.
The participants who were made up of business owners and business executives got the opportunity to interact and get answers to their pertinent questions from the facilitators from PWC.
The workshop according to Mr. Yevutsey is one of many initiatives being embarked on by the chamber to upgrade the skills of the business community in Ghana as well as strengthen the relations between the business community in Ghana and Israel.
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By: Bobbie Osei/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana