Video: ‘I Was Joking’ – Bawumia Clarifies His Comments On Paying Churches

The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) flagbearer, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has clarified his statement about incentivising churches instead of imposing taxes on them.

This transpired after the NPP flagbearer voiced concerns during a meeting with the clergy in the Bono East region last Friday, May 10, on the belief that churches need to be paying taxes.

During the discussion, Dr. Bawumia expressed his belief that the churches in Ghana had made a substantial contribution to the country’s development and that the government should pay them rather than imposing taxes on them.

At the said meeting, the NPP’s flagbearer said, “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 will rather want to give churches incentives to support what the government is doing. I want us to be partners in the way that the development partners are with us. You are our domestic development partners and we will give you incentives to do more.”

 

Watch Bawumia’s remarks at the Bono East region

Credit: Citi TV

 

 

At a meeting with clergy members in the North East Region as part of his nationwide tour, the Vice President explained that his remarks may have been misunderstood.

He emphasized that his remark was made in jest and that he wasn’t actually advocating that the government should fund churches.

Dr. Bawumia explained that his statement was made within the context that the church and other faith-based institutions have done a lot for the country including the building of schools, hospitals, and other essential facilities, and deserved to be helped to do more.

“I made that statement within the context of acknowledging the significant contributions of churches and other faith-based institutions to the country, including the construction of schools, hospitals, and other vital infrastructure,” Dr. Bawumia explained.

“Look at the number of hospitals the churches have built. Look at the number of universities the churches have built and faith-based organisations 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. How 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,” he clarified.

Watch the video below

Credit: GHOne TV

 

 

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