Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has introduced a number of tax reliefs to cushion the business community and stakeholders in the vehicle importation value chain. Ken Ofori-Atta has announced that electric vehicles imported into the country will now be granted a waiver on import duties covering a period of 8 years. Delivering the 2024 budget statement before parliament on November 15, 2023, the finance minister said government will further waive import duties on semi-knocked down and completely knocked down electric vehicles imported by registered EV assembly companies in Ghana for a period of 8 years. “Mr Speaker, government will extend zero rate of VAT on locally assembled vehicles for two more years; Zero rate VAT on locally produced sanitary pads; Zero rate VAT on locally produced sanitary pads and grant import duty waivers for raw materials for the local manufacture of sanitary pads,” he added.
According to the minister, the government will grant tax exemptions on the importation of agricultural machinery equipment, inputs and medical consumables as well as raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry. Meanwhile, Ofori-Atta said a VAT flat rate of 5 percent to replace the 15 percent standard VAT rate on all commercial properties will also be introduced to simplify administration.
Background
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta is presenting the 2024 Budget Statement and Economic Policy document to parliament today, November 15, 2023. This is per Section 28 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) which requires the minister to provide the mid-year fiscal policy review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government.
In a statement issued on November 14 and sighted by GhanaWeb Business, it noted that the crucial economic policy has been developed to support the implementation of the IMF-backed Post-COVID-19 Programme of Economic Growth (PC[1]PEG). The Ministry added that the budget will also highlight, among other things, the performance of the economy, efforts to boost the productive capacity of the economy through the new Growth Strategy, fiscal measures, and debt management strategies to deepen stability and promote growth.
