Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has declared that instead of taxing churches, his administration will provide incentives for them to embark on more development projects.
He thinks that churches are in a better position to work with the government to advance national development. This declaration is made in the midst of preliminary conversations over the prospect of taxing churches.
Dr. Bawumia, however, disputes this, pointing out the important role churches play in society. “If you look at the work the church has done,
we should rather be paying them instead of they paying us,” the NPP flagbearer said at a meeting with the clergy in the Bono East area as part of his ongoing nationwide trip.
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.”
We would rather provide churches incentives to support what the government is doing. I want us to work together in the same way as our development partners do. You are our domestic development partners, and we will provide incentives to do more.
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