Kofi Nti – GRA Boss
Even though a lot of Ghanaians operate in the informal sector, only 1.2 million people out of the 28 million citizens pay taxes.
Emmanuel Kofi Nti, acting Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), made this known yesterday in Accra during his outfit’s national voluntary tax compliance campaign dubbed, “OurTaxOurFuture.”
The acting Commissioner General said, “Out of this number, about one million are in the formal sector, leaving only 200,000 in the formal sector.
The result of this situation is that for a long time, the contribution of the informal sector to total tax revenue has remained below 5 percent. This is in spite of the fact that the economy is dominated by the informal sector.”
He said it had become urgent to reverse such disturbing situation and rope in as many people as possible into the tax net and help bridge the gap between public expenditure and revenue.
He said the national tax campaign was aimed at creating awareness among Ghanaians about their civic responsibilities so as to be prepared to contribute to the national purse.
Over the next one month, a number of awareness creation and educational events, as well as media programmes would take place.
And GRA is collaborating with the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Information Services Department (ISD) and the media to do this.
Paa Kofi Ansong, a member of the Council of State, in a speech, congratulated the leadership of GRA for agreeing to promote tax compliance and education.
“This campaign is a call to action for all of us. Can we afford to look on uncommitted as our country lacks the basic infrastructure to empower our youth and businesses to grow? #OurTaxesOurFuture is calling you and me to pay our taxes for a better future,” he stated.
He added that “if workers are not able to harness the taxes, then the future looks bleak for us and our children.”
By Samuel Boadi