Ken Ofori Atta
Organized Labour has asked the Ministry of Finance to reduce or completely waive taxes on their overtime and personal allowances.
Secretary General of the Trades Unions Congress (TUC), Dr Yaw Baah, who spoke at a forum organized by TUC in collaboration with the Friedrich–Ebert–Stiftung, said the overtime tax was causing “inconvenience” to workers.
According to him, it was highly unfair that government would continue to tax these same “inconvenience” wages.
Some members of other unions, especially the Maritime and Dockworkers Union and the Mineworkers Union, have expressed their utmost displeasure at the arrangement.
They said that overtime was affecting the quality time they spend with their families and that it should not be taxed.
Mr Baah explained that the forum was used to discuss the plans of government for the country’s economy.
The Deputy Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament (MP) for Atiwa East, Abena Osei Asare, who represented the government, said “This forum has come at a very good time when we are still taking inputs for the 2018 budget. The Organized Labor has made certain important inputs and we, at the ministry, would look at them as we prepare the budget.”
The Minister called on the Organized Labour to support the government to take bold steps in order to improve the industrial sector of Ghana and workers as a whole.
By Melvin Tarlue & Akpene Darko-Cobbina