VAT: Useless War between NPP and NDC

Mr Seth Tekper, Ghanaian Minister of Finance

By Ekow Mensah

The Value Added Tax (VAT) is clearly offensive to a cardinal principle in taxation- those who have more ought to contribute more to the national development effort.

As a regressive tax, VAT does not discriminate between the poor and the rich. They all pay the same level of tax and therefore contribute equally to the national development effort.

VAT was however introduced for the first time in Ghana in 1995 under the marching orders of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

It was seen only as a revenue mobilisation measure and concerns about social justice and equity were completely ignored.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) then in opposition vigorously opposed the introduction of VAT and joined forces with the cross-party group, Alliance for change (AFC) to organise manifestations against it.

Indeed the NPP spokesperson on Finance, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku said during the Parliamentary debate on VAT that there could be no good reason for its imposition.

He said “Thank you Mr Speaker, As I indicated, we have very good reason for opposing VAT, and if only colleagues, will listen carefully, they would be convinced that there is no reason that this country ought to pass this Bill.”

As a result of the massive opposition to VAT, it was initially withdrawn and subsequently reduced from 17.5 per cent to 10 per cent.

In the first Kumepreko demonstration at least four persons died and scores sustained various levels of injury.

In spite of this and the fact that NPP won power in 2008 partly as a result of its opposition to the introduction of VAT it increase the VAT rate to 12½ per cent on assumption of power.

The IMF link to the Kufour administration’s decision to increase the VAT rate was captured in an internal memo authored by A. Bio- Tchane, a desk officer to the fund’s Managing Director.

The Memo stated “The (Ghana) budget would incorporated a 5 percentage increase in the VAT rate, albeit “rebranded” to make it politically more palatable, and would limit the civil service wage increase to what could be afforded within the domestic financing constraints”.

This action by the NPP put it at par with the NDC which had introduced the VAT purely for the purpose of mobilising revenue.

It showed that like the NDC, the NPP had no moral or ethical limitations when it came to mobilising revenue.

Surprisingly the NDC which had vigorously defended the introduction of the VAT, turned round to opposed the NPP when it increased the rate.

Now the NDC Government has decided to increase the VAT rate by 2½ per cent more and the NPP is fuming.

VAT has become nothing more than a weapon which is being deployed by both the NDC and the NPP only for the purpose of electioneering.

It is significant to situate VAT in the general attempt by Ghanaian right wing forces and their international backers to implement the neo-liberal agenda.

This attempt has involved the privatisation of state enterprises, the massive devaluation of cedi, the retrenchment of labour in the civil and public service and the withdrawal of subsides on social services.

As a fact the introduction of VAT and subsequent increases in the rate are nothing more than the lazy man’s option.

There are several ways of raising revenue and mobilising resources beyond increasing the VAT.

The state itself could and must engage in direct production of goods and services as means of generating revenue.

The existing tax net could also be expanded to take care of persons in the informal sector and big companies which have so far managed to dodge their tax obligations.

Another crucial task is the maximisation of earnings from the exploitation of Ghana’s natural resources.

The situation in which Ghana gets less than five per cent of the value of gold exported from here is untenable.

The people of Ghana may also want to up their interest in oil, diamonds, manganese etc as a means of improving national revenue.

To the extent that the propaganda war between the NPP and the NDC over VAT does not and will not lead to the alleviation of the hardship faced by ordinary Ghanaians, it remains useless.

Editorial

SHUBA

For sometimes the mobile telephone companies have been resisting the effective monitoring of calls to ensure that they pay the right communications tax.

Indeed, some tax experts say that if these companies are made to pay the full tax, Government will receive so much money and the increases in tax levels would be unnecessary.

The problem is that instead insisting that the monitoring should be done as quickly and efficiently as possible, the politicians have began playing the election game all over.

A couple of weeks ago the claim was that “Shuba” had been paid for no work done.

Then it changed to the illegality of monitoring call data and now the claim is that the Shuba agreement was not properly signed.

The Insight is fully aware that the agreement was signed by a responsible official who had been properly mandated by the Minister to act on his behalf.

What needs to be done is to develop a system for monitoring call data to prevent the mobile phone companies from cheating the public.

It is time to get to work.

Politicians have lost respect

Professor Stephen Adei

A former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Prof. Stephen Adei, has stated that politicians in the country have lost respect in the eyes of Ghanaians due to their involvement in corrupt practices in their day-to-day activities.

He said to help reverse the trend, there was the need for politicians to work towards clearing the bad perception created in the minds of the populace by weaning themselves off any form of corruption and any other events that would dent their image.

“In the past, politicians in the country were noble people who worked very hard without indulging in any form of corruption, but now it has become a common practice for politicians to be involved in one form of corruption or the other,” he added.

Prof. Adei made that statement when he spoke at the opening of a two-day global leadership summit in Kumasi.

The programme, which had the theme: “Building the Ghana we want to see,” was organised by International Christian Ministries (a coalition of Christian churches in the Ashanti Region), in collaboration with Willow Creek Association from the US.

The summit is an annual event that brings together church administrators, pastors and members of the public, as well as other stakeholders.

“Political leaders in the country can no longer be trusted because they often indulge in social immorality which keeps growing throughout the nation. There is, therefore, the need for the nation’s principles and moral values to be revisited to inculcate the habit of patriotism to streamline people’s moral conscience.”

The former rector lamented the lack of policies to guide the existence of industries in the country, leading to the collapse of most industries.

“Until the bad attitude of the people is changed, not even 50 per cent of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) would be achieved,” Prof. Adei said, adding that there is the need for a new orientation in the line of doing things and the way people look at issues in general.

He appealed to Christians in the country to lead the crusade for good leadership by being good examples wherever they found themselves in their lines of duty and in social life.

Rev. Bill Hybels, the Founder and Leader of Willows Creek Association in the United States of America, said the leaders of today needed to be very courageous in taking bold and prudent decisions that would improve the lives of their followers.

He added that there was the need for world leaders and leadership of institutions to have the marginalised in society in mind, who should be assisted to lead a comfortable life.

Rev. Bill urged people in leadership positions to strive to sacrifice for the people they served.

The Country Director of International Christian Ministries, Rev. Philip Kofi Tutu, in a welcome address, said there was the need for the media to sit up and ensure that they were able to face realities in the country by telling the people what was actually happening without politicising issues.

He urged the various stakeholders in the country’s development to be bold and contribute their quota towards the holistic development of every facet of the economy.

Nigerian traders drag Ghana to ECOWAS Court

Haruna Iddrisu, Ghanaian Minister of Trade and Industry

Nigerian traders in Ghana have dragged the country to the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice over the enforcement of the Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC) Act.

The act, which was revised in July this year, among others, specifies the criteria foreigners would have to meet before they can be allowed to do business in the country.

It also bars foreigners from trading in the country's markets.

The petitioners, led by the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) and the Nigerian Union of Traders Association, Ghana (NUTAG), believe the act is in contravention of the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Goods and People and are thus, praying the sub-regional court to intervene and stop Ghana from continuing with its implementation and enforcement.

Ghana, through the ministries of Trade and Industry (MOTI), Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and Justice and Attorney-General, has responded to the matter, urging the court to discard the petition.

The Minister of Trade and Investment at the Ghana Consulate in Lagos, Mr Ben Heh, made this known to the Daily Graphic in Lagos, Nigeria.

“As we speak, the Nigerian traders have sued us in the ECOWAS Court and their issue is that the protocol on the free movement of goods and people allows them to trade in the country without any hindrance,” Mr Heh said, adding that the court action was the least expected by his outfit.

Mr Heh spoke to the paper on the sidelines of the Lagos International Fair, which ran from November 1 to 10.

The Ghana Export Promotion Authority, which is the non-traditional export promotion arm of the MOTI, sponsored some 51 companies from the country to participate in the fair.

New GIPC Act 

Prior to the revision of the new GIPC Act, Act 478, 1994, in July this year, a task force comprising officials of the MoTI, the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) and other stakeholders was formed to strictly enforce the act.

The act, among other things, bars foreigners from engaging in petty trading and retailing, especially in areas designated as markets.

The old act was, however, replaced in July this year with a new one that sought to align the country's investment laws with modern trends in business.

The new one raised the minimum capital for foreigners wishing to do business in the country from the previous US$300,000 to US$1 million either in cash or goods.

It also seeks to address the rampant repatriation of profits by foreign entities by tying it with technology transfer to locals, while urging that Ghanaian partners in joint ventures own at least 30 per cent equity participation in such entities.

The Nigerian business community sees this as a threat to the ECOWAS Protocol on the free movement of goods and people within the sub-region, hence the legal action.

Lagos Chamber not happy

Already, the business community in Nigeria has thrown its wait behind its compatriots in Ghana.

“Ghana needs to open up to Nigerians like Nigeria is doing. What we are hearing and were told by our High Commissioner (to Ghana) is that whenever Nigerian businesses want to repatriate their profits from Ghana, it doesn't work and your laws also make it very difficult for them to do business. That shouldn't be the case," the Deputy President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Alhaji Remi Bello, said in a separate interview.

He added that Ghana's investment laws appeared selective and thus served as a deterrent to foreign investments, especially to those from Nigeria.

Mr Heh, however, disagreed, explaining that Ghana was encouraging sanity in the business environment.

On the issue of profit repatriation, he said, "Investments that are legally registered with the GIPC won't have difficulty repatriating their profits.”

Diplomatic row

The current court action by the Nigerian traders follows a series of failed petitions and negotiations initiated by the Nigerian community in Ghana for the implementation of the act to be softened.

An estimated 2.5 million Nigerians are in Ghana, most of whom are into the retailing of mobile phones, computers and other goods and services, mostly in the markets.

The traders, earlier this year, had petitioned their High Commission in Ghana, the National Assembly in Nigeria and the ECOWAS Parliament, which is headed by a Nigerian, to intervene on their behalf.

The Leader of the House of the Nigerian Representatives Committee on Diaspora, Mr Abike Dabiri, was also quoted earlier this year as saying Ghana needed to reverse the implementation of the act or risk running into a diplomatic row with Nigeria.

Those diplomatic manoeuvres, however, failed to yield the desired results, leading to the current court action.

On what Ghana would do, given that Nigeria was a strategic ally of the country, Mr Heh said, "In issues like this, what we normally do is that if the matter is not withdrawn, then we wait to see what comes out of it so we can take it up from there."

However, indications are that Ghana will argue that the ECOWAS Protocol, which the country signed onto, is not superior to its internal laws, especially given that the GIPC Act does not prevent West Africans from investing in the country but requires them to meet the various investment requirements.

UK Spied on hotel reservations of diplomats – Snowden leaksyoshi Ota

American Security Analyst Edward Snowden

A UK spy agency infiltrated international hotel booking systems for some three years, tracing high profile officials and wiretapping their suites, new leaks reveal. GCHQ’s top secret ‘Royal Concierge’ program tracked 350 hotels across the globe.

Germany’s Der Spiegel has published yet another episode of scandalous revelations from the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, currently enjoying temporary asylum in Moscow. 

Constantly on the move, top officials and diplomats prefer to stay in high-end establishments and boutique hotels with premier service standards. And since the number of high-class hotels in the world is finite, British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) came up with the idea of turning them into a huge net to fish for secrets in high-tech style. 

After the ‘Royal Concierge’ program underwent testing in 2010, it was readied and put into action. 

Documents unearthed by Snowden reveal that over a three-year period GCHQ had an automatic system for singling out people of interest, who made reservations in about 350 upscale hotels worldwide. 

Field operatives then allegedly wiretapped the phone and network cables inside the targetted suite, and were potentially able to check into the next door suite in order to eavesdrop the target at the scene. 

‘Royal Concierge’ in operation 

According to documents seen by Der Spiegel, when a top official or a diplomat makes a reservation using his working e-mail address (or his secretary does) with a governmental domain like .gov, GCHQ gets a notification and decides whether it needs to take ‘action’ or not. 

Once a foreign diplomat is booked into a hotel, putting him under the microscope becomes a purely technical objective. Der Spiegel lists an impressive array of spying techniques and capabilities “that seem to exhaust the creative potential of modern spying”. No details, however, are provided. 

On occasions, when a guest of special interest checks in, a crack intellgence unit can be deployed who have 'specialist technologies' for spying at their disposal. GCHQ may also put into action codename 'Humint' [Human Intelligence], for close scrutiny of the target, an operation that could also include field agents working in the vicinity. The ‘Royal Concierge’ secret program logo showing a penguin wearing a crown. The black and white penguin might be mocking luxury hotels’ staff uniform.

Der Spiegel also highlights the speculation that ‘Royal Concierge’ could possibly manipulate hotel choices through the booking programs and also bug hired cars. 
Der Spiegel has not provided information about whether ‘Royal Concierge’ has been spying on Britain’s major allies, or if the targets of the GCHQ hotel surveillance had any connections to Al-Qaeda.

Remarkably, the report comes right after British intelligence chiefs made assurances that their actions were conducted within the framework of the war on terror. At a November-7th hearing by parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee in London, GCHQ head, Sir Ian Lobban, acknowledged that Edward Snowden’s leaks would make GCHQ’s work “far harder” for years to come.

Tuberculosis

The WHO's Global Tuberculosis Report 2013 was released this week, highlighting the success in the policies to control tuberculosis, stating that the lives of 22 million people have been saved, while the number of patients being treated with the disease has fallen to 8.6 million, while deaths related to tuberculosis have decreased to 1.3 million.

This means that the 2015 Millennium Development Goal, to halve the number of deaths related to TB in relation to 1990, should be reached.

However, there are two major challenges underlined in this year's report, namely that of the missing cases - around three million people with TB not being picked up by healthcare systems and drug-resistant TB cases, given that the response to treat patients with MDR-TB (Multi-drug resistant TB) is inadequate.

Last year, according to the report, 450,000 people became ill with MDR-TB. Twenty-seven countries house the great majority of these cases, spear-headed by the PR China and India. In the same year, 94,000 new cases were discovered with rapid testing schemes but it is estimated that three out of four MDR-TB cases remain undetected. Cuts in funding mean that reduced numbers of healthcare officials are unable to meet the needs - in 2012, 16,000 MDR-TB cases were given no treatment and the lack of service capacity in many countries is translated into falling TB cure rates.

Furthermore, less than 60 per cent of patients living with TB and HIV were receiving antiretroviral drugs.

The reason behind these challenges, according to the World Health Organization, is mainly one - cash. The report claims that in both cases, lack of funds available to already stretched healthcare systems render them incapable of finding and treating patients outside the formal state healthcare system, often patients in "hard-to-reach" places. 75 per cent of the three million missed cases reside in 12 countries.

Mario Raviglione, Director of the Global TB Programme for the WHO, states:"Quality TB care for millions worldwide has driven down TB deaths but far too many people are still missing out on such care and are suffering as a result. They are not diagnosed, or not treated, or information on the quality of care they receive is unknown."

France blocked nuclear deal with Iran for an obvious reason

French President Francois Hollande

Riyadh, Tehran's enemy, bought six French frigates for 1 billion Euros in October. Qatar wants French Rafale fighter jets. And so... the result is a France aiming to increase its presence in the Middle East flexing its muscles.

Gianni Charter of Paris

To general surprise, the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, did not accept to seal the nuclear deal between the group P5 +1 and Iran on Sunday 10 in Geneva. France is a country with veto power of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and therefore the next round of negotiations was postponed to the next day 20 of November.

The reason for the surprise? On Saturday 9 there was an agreement, according to the British Foreign Secretary William Hague about to be signed by all present, including the representative of the sixth country, Germany.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, the chancellor of the new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani , had reason to smile. Not since the 1979 Islamic revolution, had the dialogue between Western countries and Iran appeared to have been so decisive.

And particularly between Iran and the United States. For Barack Obama , who has sent his Secretary of State John Kerry to repair fiascos fed by Uncle Sam in the Middle East, an agreement would be, at least for now, a way to prevent a U.S. war against Iran.
More: the agreement with Iran, and then we enter the realm of naïve U.S. optimism, could heal the divisions between Shiite-led Iran and the Sunni, like those of the reactionary Saudi Arabia, an ally of Uncle Sam. In this geopolitical framework - we continue to dream - there would be peace between Shiite Iran supporting the Syrian Alawite leader (Shia sect) Bashar al-Assad and the Saudis who finance civil war in Syria, the Sunni opposition, a bag of wild cats ​​including fundamentalists.

As always, after the unexpected news given by Fabius, the customary diplomatic ballet began. From the chief diplomat of the European Union (EU), Catherine Ashton, we hear: "There has been real progress, but some differences remain."

However, there was fury expressed by Iran. From his Twitter account, the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, anti-American until the election of Rouhani, shot in English: "French officials have been openly hostile against Iran in recent years." The Facebook account of Fabius was flooded with phrases like this: "The wall of the French embassy in Tehran is how many meters?"

In fact, the actions of Fabius come as no surprise. For a start, the ex-premier could not be considered a novice in international politics. France wants to strengthen its political influence in the Persian Gulf. And, by extension, it wants closer trade ties with the region. In October, Saudi Arabia acquired six French frigates for 1 billion euros. In July, the UAE paid 1 billion euros for a French air defense system. And Qatar, ubiquitous in France, would be interested in buying French Rafale fighters .

http://www.iranews.com.br/noticia/11154/franca-bloqueou-acordo-nuclear-com-ira-por-uma-razao-obvia

Translated from the Portuguese version of Pravda.Ru

Ekaterina Santos.

Israel nuclear program remains unsupervised

By Tahmineh Bakhtiari

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is useless.

Israel persistently refuses to sign the NPT while the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regulations require all countries with nuclear energy to be committed to the NPT. The question here is to know why the Zionist regime is reluctant to accept IAEA monitoring of its nuclear activities. 

Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons; however, Israeli officials have yet to acknowledge Tel Aviv’s nuclear arsenal. 

The Israeli nuclear program started in 1956 following a pact signed between Paris and Tel Aviv. The pact required France to establish nuclear arsenal without any restrictions for the Zionist regime. France was also committed to erecting a plutonium separation factory which set the stage for the military aspects of Israel’s nuclear program. 

In 1958, Israel built the Dimona reactor. In a bid to shift public attention away from this arsenal, Israeli officials first claimed they were building a textile factory. But not long after, The New York Times disclosed the identity of this nuclear reactor in December 1960. Israel’s then prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, admitted before Knesset that the Zionist regime was building a nuclear arsenal. 

Israel developed its first nuclear warheads in 1967 when it was still fighting Arabs. There are no official figures about Israel’s nuclear arsenal, but unofficial estimates indicate that Israel is in possession of 75 to 400 nuclear weapons which include thermal weapons, neutron bombs, tactical weapons and nuclear bomb suitcases.

Built deep underground, Dimona houses extraction of plutonium and production of tritium and lithium, which are used in the development of nuclear bombs. 

Israel is reported to be producing its nuclear weapons in the Negev desert where it has a center for nuclear studies. Israel is also believed to own ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, not to mention its submarines from which Cruise missiles mounted with nuclear warheads are launched.