Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has criticised the government for what he describes as a pattern of taking major policy decisions without engaging the industry.
This comes after a high-level meeting with the Ghana Employers’ Association on March 31.
Leading a Minority Caucus delegation, the Effutu MP said the engagement revealed deep frustrations within the private sector over what he called an “accumulating burden of policy failures.”
“The discussions, which were frank and wide-ranging, produced a consolidated account of an organised private sector operating under an accumulating burden of policy failures, most of them avoidable and many the direct product of legislative and regulatory decisions taken without genuine prior engagement with those most affected,” he said.
He pointed to a consistent pattern where businesses are consulted only after decisions have already been made.
“Consultation that takes place after a decision has already been made is not consultation,” he stated.
According to him, employer groups reported submitting formal inputs on key policies only to be ignored.
“Industry bodies reported submitting formal written representations on pending legislation, receiving no substantive response and then watching their concerns be disregarded as if they had never been raised,” he added.
The Minority Leader warned that this approach has had consequences across several policy areas.
“The employer community has been subjected to this practice repeatedly, on labour legislation, on VAT restructuring, on the deployment of AI-driven excise duty assessment systems at the ports, and it has, in each case, produced avoidable harm,” he said.
In the mining sector, Mr Afenyo-Markin described the current tax regime as excessive and damaging to investor confidence.
“The cumulative burden of royalties, corporate income tax, growth and sustainability levies, dividends and ancillary charges has produced an effective tax rate that is, by independent analysis, among the highest of any comparable mining jurisdiction in the world,” he said.
He warned that this is already driving investment away.
“The consequence is capital flight: Investment decisions that should be made in Ghana are being taken elsewhere, in jurisdictions with more stable and competitive fiscal regimes,” he noted.
The Minority also raised concerns about the use of artificial intelligence in customs assessments, warning of unfair outcomes for businesses.
“In these cases, it is a system generating inflated assessments against businesses that were doing nothing wrong, at considerable cost to them,” he said.
While acknowledging the potential of technology, he stressed the need for safeguards.
“However, any deployment of AI in a revenue or enforcement context must meet the relevant legal, technical, and procedural standards,” he stated.
He criticised the rollout of the system, saying key safeguards were missing.
“None of those conditions has been met in the case of the Publican Trade Solution,” he said.
The Minority Leader further warned that the lack of support for local businesses is distorting the economy.
“The picture described by Council members is of an operating environment that consistently advantages foreign capital over domestic enterprise,” he said.
He insisted the situation is the result of policy choices.
“This is a policy outcome, and it is one that the Minority rejects,” he added.
Mr Afenyo-Markin said the Minority will escalate the concerns in Parliament and push for reforms.
“Ghana’s employers are not asking for favours. They are asking for a state that engages before it acts, a regulatory environment that is stable and proportionate and a Parliament that takes the private sector seriously enough to defend it,” he said.
“On all three counts, the present administration has fallen short. The Minority Caucus will hold it to account.”
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Source: www.myjoyonline.com