Ghana loses 3.2 trillion cedis through tax exemption
Professor advocates law to protect AIDS patients
Earthquake: Accra on time bomb
Ghana's 2000 budget leaked
Ghana loses 3.2 trillion cedis through tax exemption
The Daily Graphic in its back page major story, reports that Ghana lost about 3.2 trillion cedis through tax exemption granted to a number of institutions in 1998.
Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Member of Parliament for Akim Oda, who is reported as making this known, expressed regret that most of the exempted goods found their way into the open market to the detriment of the economy. Mr Osafo-Maafo was contributing to a panel discussion on the "performance of the Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana" at the 51st New Year School at Winneba in the Central Region.
The Member of Parliament is said to have stated that Parliament has decided to move in quickly to salvage the situation. He said the House is against blanket tax exemptions because of the likelihood of abuse. He is said to have announced that the Parliamentary Finance Committee will soon place a motion before the House to set up a sub-committee purposely to consider tax exemptions.
On the performance of Parliament, he is reported as saying that the House has so far performed its legislative functions creditably. He said Parliament today enjoys a high level of co-operation and consensus building, adding that committee work is done without party politics, which is a sign of political maturity.
GRi../
Professor advocates law to protect AIDS patients
In an inside page story, the Ghanaian Times reports Professor Gilford Amarh Ashitey, of the School of Public Health of the University of Ghana, as advocating a legislation which will make it an offence for public and private institutions to discriminate against an HIV/AIDS person.
He is quoted as saying, "marginalisation and discrimination against AIDS sufferers are hindering the fight against the disease, but with such a legislation in place, the public can be educated to go for voluntary screening and counselling". Prof. Ashitey was delivering his 30 years in academia anniversary lecture on: "Public Health in Public Wealth - The challenges of the Ghanaian Public Health Physician in the first two decades of the third millennium".
He is quoted as saying that "people, who are HIV positive can be educated to adopt appropriate sexual lifestyles and help reduce unintentional spread of AIDS", adding that wilful spread of AIDS if proven, is already a serious criminal offence.
GRi../
The Accra Mail
Earthquake: Accra on time bomb
The Accra Mail writes in a front-page story that one of its major environmental concerns has been the issue of disaster management following signals of earth tremors in the Accra metropolis in recent times.
The paper says these tremors have featured in articles written by Prof. J.E. van Landewijk, a member of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), to educate residents of Accra and its environs about precautionary measures to adopt because of its location in an earthquake prone area.
The Accra Mail says that the metropolis has experienced three earth tremors in recent times. The paper says that Prof. Kwesi Andam, president of the Ghana Institution of Engineers, in the December 1999 edition of the "The Ghana Engineer", added his voice to those concerns.
Prof. Andam is reported to have argued that owing to indiscipline on the part of land developers in Ghana, a major earthquake could lead to astronomical loss of life. According to him, Accra and Ghana are sitting on a time bomb because the last major earthquake in 1939, when the population was just 77,000 registered 17 casualties, but the current population estimated at three million people by linear projection, could result in 650 fatalities and countless injuries should disaster strike.
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Ghana's 2000 budget leaked
In its front-page lead story, the Dispatch writes that Ghana's 2000 budget is scheduled to be presented to Parliament for approval sometime next month (February) but already, many of the core elements of the budget have been leaked.
According to the paper, the leakage has not been on the part of disloyal public officials but from official documents submitted by the government to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Dispatch says that the documents, 16 pages, were submitted under a covering letter of November 3, 1999, to the Managing Director of the IMF, Mr Michel Camdessus.
The covering letter is said to have been signed by the Finance Minister, Mr Kwame Peprah, The paper says that an IMF Public Information Notice of December 7, 1999, also revealed portions of Ghana's 2000 budget. Mr Peprah, in his letter, is said to have hinted that the attached memorandum set out, among other measures, "the key elements of an economic strategy that the government intends to pursue during 2000".
The Dispatch says that the memorandum "provides a summary of the economic trends in 1999 and prospects for 2000". According to the paper, the budget expected to be submitted to Parliament, will include "an increase in the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate; enhancement of non-tax revenue; increases in petroleum taxes; limitation of exemptions under the VAT and a reduction of the minimum cocoa prices paid by government to producers for lower quality beans".
GRi../