We must go beyond economic stability – Bawumia

Vice president Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has noted the various policies being introduced by government must transform the lives of Ghanaians beyond stabilising the economy.

He admitted there is hardship in the system, but promised the various social policy interventions will soon address challenges of the average Ghanaian.

“I know and share in the sentiments of the Ghanaian public that macroeconomic stability is however not sufficient,” Dr. Bawumia stated at the ongoing National Policy Summits in Tamale.

He added: “It has to translate into the well-being of Ghanaians”.

“… Thankfully, our focus in government has not just been on the restoration of macroeconomic stability,” the vice president promised.

Dr. Bawumia further highlighted some of the policy interventions by government, other than macroeconomic stability aimed at alleviating the hardships on Ghanaians.

He stressed on the many tax cuts and abolishment introduced by government such as the abolishment of excise duty on petroleum, reduction of special petroleum tax rate from 17.5% to 15%, abolishment of levies imposed on ‘kayayei’ by local authorities, abolishment of the 1% Special Import Levy, abolishment of the 17.5% VAT/NHIL on domestic airline tickets, and abolishment of the 17.5% VAT/NHIL on financial services.

Others are abolishment of the 17.5% VAT/NHIL on selected imported medicines, that are not produced locally, abolishment of the 5% VAT/NHIL on Real Estate sales, abolishment of the import duty on the importation of spare parts, reduction of National Electrification Scheme Levy from 5% to 3% and reduction of Public Lighting Levy from 5% to 2%.

On the Free SHS education policy, Dr. Bawumia stressed that it is not only helping to educate children, but also helping families to save and use that savings to invest in small businesses.

“The free SHS has relieved the suffering of many parents,” the veep noted. “If you are a small business person or a trader, this is substantial savings that can be invested in your business without having to take a loan from the bank.”

He said the savings parents could make from the Free SHS policy are as follows: for a parent with a Day SHS student the saving is GHC 1,075.41; for a parent with a Day TVET student the saving is GHS1,175.41; for a parent with a boarding SHS student, you save GHS2,015.22; for a parent with a boarding TVET student you save GHS 2,115.22; and over a 3 year period a parent with a boarding SHS student would have saved nearly GHS 5,534.43 (or about 55 million old cedis). The savings is about 110 million old cedis if you have 2 children going through the free SHS.

Dr. Bawumia further indicated that “notwithstanding the above progress, we will also be the first to admit that there is still a lot more to do to get to the President’s objective of a Ghana beyond Aid. This is why this policy summit is so important.”