Afenyo Markin Advocates Taxes To Finance Free SHS

The current funding regime of government’s flagship program, the free Senior High School (SHS), from the consolidated fund must shift to taxation as a special purpose vehicle for the long-term sustenance of the policy, Member of Parliament for Efutu Constituency, Alex Afenyo-Markin, has suggested.

According to him, such a laudable program should not he left to depend on the consolidated, where it would compete with other critical needs, and therefore called for a dedicated funding source through taxation; just as it was done for the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Afenyo-Markin, who doubles as Board Chairman of the Ghana Water Company Limited Council believed that the introduction of a ‘Free SHS Tax’ is the only practical means to sustain the policy in order to derive the benefits envisaged for the country.

The Effutu MP, who made the proposal on the floor of Parliament in a statement on ‘Why tax for free SHS Education’, cautioned that if issues of funding the visionary policy are not addressed, succeeding governments may abandon it with excuses of funding difficulties.

“Although the free SHS policy has come to stay, if the issue for the funding is not tackled head on and properly streamlined, a time may come when a succeeding government may find a convenient way to dispose of the policy as a result of funding difficulties”, he warned.

The proposed taxes

The lawmaker has therefore proposed a 2% increase in VAT rate, 1% tax charges on all mobile money transactions and a special tax of 1% on all imports as potential sources of revenue to fund and sustain the policy.

Justification for free SHS tax

Mr. Afenyo-Markin argued that, in order to succeed, the program, which is aimed at empowering the nation’s future leaders to take up key responsibilities in an envisaged industrial society, must be funded from a dedicated source.

The MP explained further that since human capital is the best national resource, young people that would be educated through the policy stand the chance of being capacitated with different knowledge and skills to explore greater opportunities for themselves whiles the country benefits from their works and taxes.

He opined that since the imposition of taxes for funding key policies worked in the cases of GETFUND, NHIS and others, it would equally work for the free SHS.

The Efutu MP is of the conviction that Ghanaians would be willing to contribute their quota in the form of taxes to help sustain a far-reaching policy like the free SHS.

By: Christian Kpesese/thePublisher