Parliament Approves Ghc1.6million Tax Waiver For Purchase Of Weather Equipment

Parliament has approved a Ghc1.6million tax waiver in respect of the purchase of equipment to monitor the weather.

It is not clear if the range of instruments being purchased.

Reports which are not too clear on what exactly the government is buying did not also specify if a seismometer is also being purchased even though it is said that the tax waiver is also to cover the purchase of equipment for monitoring earthquakes.

The Ghana radio astronomy project and colocation of the satellite earth observation group receiving station at Kuntunse for Ghana Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI) is the beneficiary. 

The waiver is in accordance with Memorandum of Agreement signed between the governments of Ghana and South Africa for Science Cooperation in 2013.

Under the agreement the GSSTI of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) in collaboration with the Square Kilometer Array-South Africa will establish a facility to train students in Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology and Space Science in the country.

Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah, Presented the Finance Committee’s report, which approved the waiver. “An integral part of the telescope facility is the global navigation satellite system reference receiver, a geodetic level antenna and seismic system to study the weather, earthquake and plate tectonics,” he said.

“Ghana’s position on the globe make the country closest to the equator and that is one of the reasons Ghana was chosen as a partner country,” Dr Assibey Yeboah told Parliament