Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister
There are six million potential individual taxpayers in Ghana, but just about 1.5 million are formally registered with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
Of this number, 1.36 million are employees, implying that most self-employed individuals are not registered with the GRA, Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance, disclosed on Thursday in Accra.
Owing to this, Mr Ofori-Atta said government had put measures in place to enhance domestic resource mobilization.
These include review of tax laws, rationalization of taxes and introduction of an automated system (tripsTM) for domestic revenue.
He also said government has begun consultations with key stakeholders on ways to attract more revenue, adding that it has planned to present a package of tax policies to Parliament in the mid-year review of the budget to ensure sustained funding for Ghana’s development projects.
“So I charge all of us to give our taxes to Caesar; to rise up to our civic responsibilities, building nation and achieving our vision of moving Ghana beyond aid.”
According to him, government depends on domestic taxes to support development supported by aid.
Developing countries, including Ghana, now have to find new ways of broadening their tax base, improving efficiency in revenue administration and blocking tax revenue leakages, harnessing technology to modernize and improving efficiency in tax administration and tax policy formulation and analysis, fighting illicit financial flows and restoring credibility between taxpayers and governments.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta added that government recognises that the ongoing paperless project, among others, would be a gradual and challenging process.
Founder and President of ACET, Kingsley Yaw Amoako, noted that revenue mobilisation is central to the success of the Compact with Africa (CWA) launched last year under the German government’s G20 presidency.
“As we all know, revenue mobilization in most developing countries is not keeping pace with development goals or increasing fiscal pressures. This issue is of paramount importance for Ghana and its long term development strategy, as well as for all other developing countries,” he said.
By Samuel Boadi