The President, Nana Akufo-Addo has extended the incentive package for health workers for three more months as they continue to lead the country ‘s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
This means all health workers in the country will continue to enjoy income-tax-free salaries for the months of July, August and September.
Additionally, frontline health workers will also continue to receive 50 percent of their basic salary as allowances for the same period.
The President announced these during his 13th national address today, Sunday, June 28, 2020, where he gave an update on Ghana’s response measures against the continuous rise in the number of COVID-19 infections in the country.
“I announced an incentive package to motivate and express appreciation to all health workers for the months of April, May and June. I am happy to announce that I have decided to extend the incentive package for health workers for another three months. This means that all health workers will pay no income taxes for the next three months. ie. July, August and September. Again all frontline health workers as defined by the ministry of health will continue to receive an additional allowance of 50 percent of their basic salary for the next three months. ie. July, August and September”, he said.
President first announced the three-month tax holiday for the health workers at the beginning of April 2020.
Although the free tax package has been implemented, that of the 50 per cent allowance is yet to be carried out given the seeming controversy over the definition and qualification of a frontline health worker.
However, President Akufo- Addo says issues with the packages as earlier announced for the past three m, months have been resolved with the rollout of the payment plan to begin soon.
“I know the implementation of this for April, April May June, has been fraught with some challenges cause mainly by the protracted issue of who qualifies as a front line health worker in this context. I have however been assured that all the challenges have been resolved for payment to be affected by the end of June.”
Nana Addo said the government is committed to ensuring that health workers are supported as they deliver essential services to the populace especially amidst the outbreak of Coronavirus.
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