Ken Ofori-Atta
Government has announced a new way of collecting property tax and accountability for the rates, fees and charges by the Metropolitan Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MDAs) to ensure cost recovery in providing the needed infrastructure.
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta said property rates have the potential to increase revenue mobilisation for MMDAs and release resources for provision of basic infrastructure as well as the needs of the localities.
Presenting the 2022 budget statement in Parliament on Wednesday, he stated that property rate assessment and collection pose a challenge to most MMDAs and are normally fraught with inefficiencies.
“Government, through the Ghana Revenue Authority will, from January 2022, assist the MMDAs to implement a common platform for property rate administration to enhance property rate collections and its accountability,” he stressed.
According to him, the move is also to ensure “cost recovery by the Government in providing the infrastructure for the collection of the rate, noting that a sharing ratio will be agreed with the Assemblies.
Fees and charges
He indicated that the Government would complete its work with Parliament to pass the fees and charges bill for implementation in 2022, intimating that “these fees and charges will be subject to automatic adjustment consistent with the annual average inflation as announced by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS).”
The Minister disclosed that a comprehensive review would be conducted after every fifth-year taking into consideration other factors, besides inflation including, improvement in quality of service delivery and privatisation of some of the services, where feasible.
By Ernest Kofi Adu