ICU-Ghana supports calls against VAT on electricity
The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU)-Ghana has supported Organised Labour’s call for the removal of a 15 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on electricity.
Mr Morgan Ayawine, the General Secretary, ICU-Ghana, at a media engagement, said there were already so many nuisance taxes in the system, and adding on to them would be unbearable for the Ghanaian workers. Mr Ayawine said it was not right for the government to treat the citizenry in that manner.”Why do we pay VAT on electricity when the people are already overburdened?” he said.
He said if the government failed to remove the taxes on electricity after January 31, the Union would advise itself appropriately. Mr Ayawine said it was important for the government to concentrate its energy on the recovery of the economy rather than imposing VAT on electricity.
“The government is looking for trouble. Why should this thing come at this time? If there should be any trouble, then it is not from the Unions but from the government,” he said.
Mr Ayawine said anytime such an issue came up and Organised Labour raised concerns, people read all kinds of meaning into the issue.
The ICU, he said, had started consulting its structure nationwide, and on January 31, it would join hands with Organised Labour to do what was appropriate.
Mr Ayawine said the Union did not have the luxury of time to engage the government on the matter.
“We are not going to negotiate; our simple request is that the government withdraw the directive and stay with the status quo,” he said. He appealed to members of the ICU to adhere to any decision that would be taken by the leadership and gave the assurance that VAT on electricity would not succeed.
Dr Yaw Baah, the Secretary General of the Trade Union Congress, Ghana, recently gave the government a one-week ultimatum to withdraw the VAT on electricity for residential customers.
The labour Unions said the implementation of VAT on electricity for residential customers would worsen the plight of the “already burdened” Ghanaians since the cost of electricity would go up by more than 15 per cent.