President of the Association, Samson Awingobit, said while the minister did not introduce any new taxes, they felt disappointed that the budget failed to drop the 2% special levy on imports. He explained that the government had promised to drop the 2% levy after collecting it for some time. The 5% special levy for banks to pay before tax on their profits introduced in the main budget was also not the best since it would have implications for businesses, and we wanted it to be dropped too. The Special Import Levy Act, 2013 (Act 861) (‘SILA’), which was introduced in 2013 to impose a 1% to 2% levy on the importation of specified goods, was meant to raise funds to stabilize the economy up to 2015. The Special Import Levy (Amendment) Bill, 2017 amended the Special Import Levy, Act, 2013 (Act 861) to remove the levy payable on specific imported goods.

Source: GhanaWeb July 30, 2021 15:11 UTC