Please find below a press statement released by NUGS and PUSAG on government’s decision to make private universities in Ghana pay tax.
NUGS AND PUSAG STRONGLY FROWN ON THE PROPOSED 20% CORPORATE TAX TO BE LEVIED ON PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN GHANA BY GOVERNMENT.
The National secretariat of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) in the spirit of solidarity with the Private University Students Association (PUSAG) fervently wishes to draw the attention of the Government of the Republic of Ghana and other stake holders that the Leadership of NUGS and PUSAG strongly disagree and shall not in any way support Government’s proposal to tax private universities in Ghana.
This is because educational institutions are registered by guarantee but not as limited liability companies and for that matter; they are not profit-making bodies to be taxed. This is a misplaced priority if Government is too desperate for money.
NUGS and the entire Student fraternity believes that ‘’education is our right and not a privilege;’’ and therefore any law that seeks to undermine the cornerstone on which our Student fraternity is built on shall be treated as an oppressing rule since it will go a long way to collapse the expansion our educational systems. Education is key to national development and based on this assertion most advanced countries have developed due to the dominant nature of Private Universities in their countries who enjoy tax exemptions.
In our case here in Ghana, 63 Private Universities pay affiliation fees to National Accreditation Board and their affiliated public universities yearly and yet, they are denied: GETfund, subventions from government, state scholarships, state funding for research and they get little or no regular support from government.
These notwithstanding, private students are expected to be nationalistic, sacrifice a year of active working life for National Service which most private students see as “National Suffering”. This clearly depicts how Government disregards the complementary role of private universities in supplementing the increasing demands for tertiary education in achieving the quality education and better agenda in Ghana.
The leadership of NUGS and PUSAG have critically debated on this issue of taxing private universities and have realised though that government spends some proportion of its annual budget on our education, this law will;
1. Increase the rate at which SHS and tertiary students drop out from school yearly since this tax will affect the general fees and make it unaffordable for all.
2. Definitely reduce the annual capacity intake of SHS graduates by the Private Universities thereby making room for polytechnics to become technical universities in the near future as planned by government.
3. Lead to the retrenchment of Staff and hence increase the unemployment rate, leading to a high dependency ratio, with the possible negative effects attached.
4. Increase corruption in the 5 Public Universities due to the high demand and overburden of admissions coupled with the fact that the private Universities are quite expensive.
5. Result in the folding-up of most or some of the Private Universities which are churning out quality graduates annually and make them unpopular amongst public universities, vocational / technical training institutions, polytechnics etc.
NUGS is therefore imploring government to restore the tax exemption on private universities immediately and rather support private universities in increasing the absorption rate between 26% and 30% capacity of the 409,000 double stream SHS graduates in addressing the backlog of SHS graduates in the system who are eager to enter the universities especially this year. We further urge government and other stakeholders to take the educational sector very serious before we advise ourselves.
Signed:
EUGENE ACKOM-DAMTEY (NUGS Education Secretary)
LOUISA ATTA – AGYEMANG (Ag. NUGS President)
ELIAS ZIGAH (PUSAG President)
