The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has explained that his comment for churches to have incentives and not pay tax was a joke.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia speaking at Techiman in the Bono Region on Friday, May 10, 2024, stated that the church has done enormous to propel the development of the country.
He also added that he is not in favor of churches paying taxes and should rather be given some incentives.
“Unless you don’t understand the work the church has done. If you are looking at the buildings, the way they keep the society together, the universities, the hospitals, the schools, it is massive. It is just massive. Many churches have hundreds of schools. So I don’t see and I will not have a situation where we are taxing churches,” the Vice President stated.
However, the NPP’s flag bearer has backtracked on his comment adding that it was a joke.
“Look at the number of hospitals the churches have built. Look at the number of universities the churches have built and the faith-based organizations have built. Look at the number of people the churches and faith-based organizations take care of on a daily basis. Can you imagine, just take a thought for a moment that you wake up tomorrow and all the schools, universities, and hospitals the churches have built disappear? They just disappear. What would Ghana be like? Ghana will collapse. Isn’t it? We will not survive in this sort of situation because there will be chaos.
“So at that point, I was joking and I said, oh…people are talking about taxing churches. I don’t believe, and we will not tax churches. Because if you look at the work the churches have done, then I was joking then, maybe we should have actually paid them for what they did, not really trying to tax them. But I wasn’t really saying we should pay churches, no. I am saying that we should give incentives to churches to do more.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
