A visually impaired senior social development officer with Social Welfare Department of the Ayawaso East Municipal Assembly, Mr. Abdul Razack Yusif is appealing to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to aid him get tax exemption from the Finance Ministry to clear his donated VW Golf 2005 model from Germany for use.
According to Mr. Yusif all effort including letters from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection qualifying him to be granted tax exemption by the Tax Exemption Unit of the Finance Ministry per the disability act 2006, Act 715 has come to not.
According to Act 715(d) which states that, vehicles specially designed, adapted and modified for use by persons with disability upon recommendation by the Ministry of Social Welfare and approved by the Ministry of Finance, a tax exemption would be granted.
The act says where a person with disability means an individual with a physical, mental or sensory impairment including a visual, hearing or speech functional disability and so on.
“But all my effort to get the tax exemption unit to grant me tax exemption by the disability act has proved futile for the past six months as the unit keeps rejecting my request that I don’t qualify,” he stated with tears flowing from his eyes.
“As we speak, the state is about to gazette all the cars at the Tema Port and confiscate them by the end of this month.”
Speaking to Myrepubliconline.com, Mr. Yusif said after the Tax Exemption Unit of the ministry rejected his first request, “I petitioned the Commissioner General of GRA to grant me tax waiver which they wrote to me stating I qualify and that I need to reapply. This time after the application, I spoke with Mr. Yusif Jaja, Member of Parliament for Ayawaso North to intervene but was also told I don’t qualify.”
He told the paper that he spends close to GH₡100.00 as lorry fare each month because of his disability which ordinarily has to be GH₡180.00, so the vehicle which as impaired man cannot be modified for use rather has to be driven by a sighted person but all the documents of the said vehicle contain my details.
“So, when I appealed to my uncle outside the country for a car, he decided to help me with a VW Golf 2005 model with chassis number VWWZZ1KZ5W521467,” he stated.
“I have presented all the needed documents from the Ghana Blind Union, a member organization of the Ghana Federation of Disability, Social Welfare Department and others which qualify me to be granted tax exemption per the act but the unit keeps rejecting my application because the car is not a modified car and that ones, I am a blind man, I cannot drive myself.”
“But I believe that is not the spirit of the Act, because the purpose is to facilitate our mobility and to reduce burden on as persons with disability.”
I don’t know what to do again but to use your medium to appeal to the President and other authorities to have compassion in aiding me to clear the car before its gazetted for confiscation in this January,” he appeals
Mr Yusif has being working with the Social Welfare Department of the of the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection for the past 10 years.
