Management of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has denied claims by some ex-staff of the institution of unlawful deductions from their ex-gratia packages.
Speaking to Citi News on the matter, the University’s Public Relations Officer, Dr. Daniel Norris Bekoe said the school is mandated to make the deductions in line with the new Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896).
“The deductions on the end of service benefits of the retirees are in compliance with the new income tax law Acts 896 section 4.6.4 which mandates all public sector employees who earn end of service benefits to pay a tax.”
“In the case of public universities, senior members pay 25% tax, senior staff pay 17.5% tax whilst the junior staff pay 10% tax. So we are not doing anything unlawful. Besides this is not done in KNUST alone,” he said.
Some former staff of the school at a press conference yesterday, March 24, 2021, expressed their displeasure over the deductions, which they described as unlawful and a deliberate attempt by “management to extort them and aggravate their plights.”
The Chairman of the group, Philip Aku-Nnubeng Barimaba said all efforts to stop any further deductions and refund all monies deducted from them have proven futile.
They threatened to use legal means to get their monies back before Monday, March 29, 2021.
Meanwhile, the school in a separate statement on the matter clarified that the tax in question “applies to all staff of all public universities of Ghana who qualify for such packages; [and that] the deduction is thus not unlawful, or discriminatory”.
Source:Fiilafmonline/CitiNews
