The Dean of the University of Cape Coast Business School, Professor John Gatsi has called the credibility of the Vice President into question, following Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s promise to abolish some listed taxes when voted to become president.
According to him, Dr. Bawumia was neck-deep into the formulation and implementation of those policies, asserting that the promise to scrap them is just a political gimmick.
Delivering his policy statement and priorities of his government to Ghanaians in Accra on Wednesday February 7, 2024, Dr. Bawumia said abolishing the e-levy tax, or tax on mobile money transactions, will boost his government’s bid for a cashless society.
He also promised to abolish VAT on electricity if it is implemented by the current government, tax on betting and emissions tax among others.
But Prof. Gatsi told TV3’s Ghana Tonight that if Dr. Bawumia wants to show that he is not part of the team that brought the taxes, then he should have exited government once he was not in support of those policies.
He would also not accept the Vice President’s claim that the Economic Management Team that he heads is only an advisory body to the president.
The head of economic management team will have to approve all the economic policies, and also sit in cabinet as the number two person to deliberate on them, before they get to parliament for approval, he analysed.
“How do you believe in somebody who sits in all these processes, approved these things and then come to the public to say I will abolish, I will abolish; he is only thinking of how to win an election and allow those things to continue.
“I am not sure he has what it takes to abolish that, that will not sink well with the IMF programme, and that does not sink well with his own beliefs and understanding in those policies.
“It is something we should just wish away, some statement that we have just heard, it should pass through the other ear and go, it is not the truth. It creates a lot of credibility problem for the government, it creates a lot of credibility problem for the vice president”
In his view, for Dr. Bawumia to speak against all these policies as if he was not part, it means “the persons has a serious credibility problem… It is just a political strategy, it is too late”.
He is therefore asking Ghanaians “not to put premium” on what was promised by the Vice President who was recently elected as the governing party’s presidential candidate.