Minority demands clarity on tax waivers, incentives for 1D1F operators

An incentive package from the government for the operators of the One-district One-factory programme has been met with stiff opposition at Parliament’s Trade and Industry Committee.

The Package which includes tax exemptions, tax holiday periods of up to five years among other things is currently under consideration at the committee level after it was presented to the house earlier.

The government has indicated that about 181 factories are at various stages of development, but the Deputy Ranking Member of the Trade and Industry Committee of Parliament, Yusif Sulemana believes the government must give details and exact amounts in taxes it is estimating to grant to operators of the factory.

“The process where some taxes would be exempted from those who are going to benefit from 1D1F, is a blank request. I was in that meeting and we realized that it was just like asking us to sign a blank cheque. Yes the constitution mandates parliament to waive taxes…we want to know that, yes, this is how much the taxes will accumulate to and we are asking parliament to weigh that tax,” he said.

45 factories currently operational – Ahomka-Lindsay

There are currently 45 of the One District One Factory projects operational out of 181 projects already on the drawing board, according to Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Robert Ahomka-Lindsay.

Aside from 22 of the 181 projects, which are under construction, the remaining projects are set to commence implementation before the end of 2019.

The projects set to commence by the end of 2019 include small scale processing facilities, common user processing facilities financed from sources ranging from local private finance initiatives (PFIs), African Development Bank (AfDB) and CNB facility.

Of the 181 factories on the drawing board, 52 of them are existing ones while the remaining 129 have been categorised as new, Mr. Ahomka-Lindsay outlined on Citi TV’s The Point of View last week.