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Deputy Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has dismissed allegations that Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta is involved with businesses in tax havens.
According to him, “it is almost laughable” for anyone to make claims to the effect that “the Finance Minister has companies in tax havens and therefore the Finance Minister himself may not be paying tax”.
Speaking in an interview on Class FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Tuesday, 27 February 2018 in reply to comments by Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolgatanga Central Constituency, Mr Isaac Adongo, Mr Oppong Nkrumah told the host, Moro Awudu that: “Everybody knows the story of Databank, Enterprise Group, both life and general and other businesses and subsidiaries. Everybody knows the various investments that the Finance Minister has here in Ghana and nobody has taken the Finance Minister’s companies to task on tax evasion”.
Mr Ofori-Atta is advocating tax compliance by companies and citizens leading to government’s introduction of tax stamps and other interventions to expand revenue to develop the country.
Mr Adongo had indicated that the Finance Minister “must come clean on the tax havens and withdraw those companies back to Ghana and demonstrate that those companies are paying their taxes into the Ghanaian purse to motivate all of us to pay taxes”.
“The Finance Minister himself must demonstrate a commitment to that course [of tax payments] because we have the Finance Minister reported to be running a company in tax haven. What do tax havens do? They are tax avoidance schemes and if you have your Finance Minister reported to believe in schemes that do not pay taxes, how do I get motivated for tax compliance when this person is the one managing the finances of the country?” he questioned.
