Tony Aidoo Calls For Investigation Into ‘Sachet Water’ Tax

Head of Policy Evaluation and Oversight Unit of the Government, Dr. Tony Aidoo is asking Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffour to investigate how sachet water came to be included in the products to be affected by the imposition of excise duties on plastic packaging materials and products. The Finance Minister in the 2011 Budget presented to Parliament last Thursday proposed the imposition of a 20 percent environmental tax on plastic packaging materials and products. The proposal explicitly excluded ‘bottled water’ which already attracts excise duty. The tax, according to the minister, is to support the protection of the environment and will be charged at the importation and any production or collection points. But Dr. Tony Aidoo says the tax, as it affects sachet water, is creating the ‘most negative impression’ of the budget and must be investigated because there was no intention whatsoever, during discussions leading to the drawing up of the budget, to include sachet water among products to be affected by the tax. Speaking on Radio Gold’s Alhaji and Alhaji programme on Saturday, Dr. Tony Aidoo who said he participated in all the budget discussions, found it rather unfortunate that the final document (Budget) ignored the proposal of the political authority to exclude sachet water from the tax. “I have a problem with the issue of the excise duty on plastic packaging materials because I took part in the budgetary discussion throughout and … nowhere was there an implication that sachet water would be affected. In fact some of us even insisted that the phrase ‘excluding bottled water’ should also include sachet water. So it is unfortunate that in the final document, our proposal, the proposal of the political authority responsible for what is contained here, is not in the final document. And this, I believe the Minister of Finance must investigate, to the extent that it is creating the most negative impression. “The intention was not there, it should have been stated even though it is not too late because tax proposals in the budget can only be effected through an LI approved by Parliament…but let me say with emphasis, there was no intention to impose this duty on sachet water per se,” he told programme host Alhassan Suhini. On Joy FM’s Newsnite programme last Thursday, Dr. Aidoo was vehement in his denials that the environmental tax announced in the budget affected sachet water, engaging programme host Dzifa Bampoh in a bitter discourse and directing her to ‘go and read’ the budget statement carefully. Not even a reading of the specific provision from the budget statement could convince Dr. Aidoo that indeed the tax affected sachet water, however on Radio Gold, he said while he had a problem with the excise duty on plastic packaging materials and products, the public have a duty to embrace imposed taxes to ensure the government has some revenue to embark upon infrastructure development, explaining that only 12 percent of government revenue goes into investment with the rest going into the personal emoluments of workers. “…12 percent of the total revenue of the government will go into investments, the rest are consumed by Item 1 – personal emoluments and so on and so forth, then we have statutory obligations to respond to. So if you have a country whose total national income or government revenue goes into the payment of salaries and so on so forth, and only 12 percent can be reserved for infrastructural development and the very people who are criticizing this government for imposing upon them, a responsibility to make a contribution towards the means of providing the infrastructure, then we do have a serious problem in this country.” The 2011 budget has as its theme; “Stimulating Growth for Development and Job Creation” and according to the Finance Minister, the theme was chosen ”to focus attention on the need to propel the economy onto a higher growth and development trajectory.” Story by Isaac Yeboah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana