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Harsh taxes are currently inevitable- Seth Terkper

Government’s tax policies have come under a lot of scrutiny in the past few weeks, initially by the Association of Ghana Industries who identified excessive taxes as one of the main problems hindering operations, in their Business Barometer Report for the first quarter of 2016.

Seth Terkper, Minister of Finance

Harsh taxes are currently inevitable- Seth Terkper

Minister of Finance Seth Terkper has been addressing current criticisms about high taxes, at the Ministry’s quarterly Executive Breakfast  Meeting on Tuesday.

More recently, energy sector stakeholders like the Integrated Social Development Centre, the Consumer Protection Agency, and the opposition New Patriotic Party have blamed sharp spikes in electricity prices as a consequence of high taxes imposed on the cost of power. Total amount of taxes on electricity has been pegged at 35% by the ranking member of parliament on the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, K.T Hammond.

Responding to the concerns, Minister of Finance Seth Terkper conceded that government has had to resort more to taxes as a source of revenue to block recent revenue generation gaps owing to the country’s recent economic challenges.

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As a background to his point, Seth Terkper gave a brief summary of the current challenges of the Ghanaian economy and why an intensified tax regime is necessary to correcting those challenges.

No sugarcane for revived factory - MP

The Member of Parliament for Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem, Dr Nana Ato Arthur has noted with concern the lack of raw materials to be used at the revamped Komenda Sugar Factory.

President John Mahama has said the revived Komenda Sugar Factory will provide direct and indirect jobs to an estimated 7,000 people.

Although Dr Ato Arthur is happy for his constituents, he has questioned how this dream can be realised when there are no sugar plantations in the area to produce raw materials for the factory.

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We go to the currency market

Currency                      Buying                         Selling

Dollar                            3.83                             4.13

Pound Sterling             5.60                              5.90

Euro                             4.26                              4.56

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On how your stocks performed on the GSE Index today

SCB were the biggest losers of the day, dropping 47p to close at 14.50p… whereas SIC were the biggest gainers of the day, gaining 1p to close at 0.15p

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