By Adedapo Adesanya
Ghana has announced a three-month tax holiday for health workers in the country beginning from April 2020.
This was disclosed by the country’s president, Mr Nana Akufo-Addo, in an address on Sunday, April 5, 2020. He stated that this will help secure the workers helping the country in its fight against the spread of the COVID-19 disease.
He said, “Government has decided that all health workers will not pay taxes on their emoluments for the next three months, that is, April, May and June.”
He further added that all frontline health workers will receive an additional allowance of 50 percent of their basic salary for the three months in which the March allowance will be paid alongside that of April.
The Ghanaian president noted that the government had procured some essentials needed by health workers to enable them to continue their fight.
“That is why the government is placing a high priority on the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPEs) for them.
“Thus far, three hundred and fifty thousand (350,000) masks, five hundred and fifty-eight thousand, six hundred and fifty (558,650) examination gloves, one thousand (1,000) reusable goggles, twenty thousand (20,000) cover-alls, seven thousand (7,000) N-95 respirators, five hundred (500) waterproof gumboots, two thousand (2,000) reusable face shields, two thousand (2,000) gallons of hand sanitizers, ten thousand (10,000) 100ml pieces of hand sanitizers, and five hundred (500) shoe covers have been sent to the regional health directorates, for onward distribution to the district health directorates for use by our health workers in all the districts,” he stated in the address.
He also announced that an insurance package with an assured sum of GHc350,000 had been put in place for each health worker and allied professional, while a daily allowance of GHc150 was being paid to contact tracers.
Other incentives for citizens include the Government’s absorbing of the water bills for all citizens for the next three months, from April .
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has also been directed not to disconnect the power supply to any citizen.
The Ministry of Transport has made available buses to convey frontline health workers for free in the Ghanaian cities of Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi, back and forth along specific routes for the entire duration of the restrictions on movements in those areas which have high rate of the outbreak in the country.
