An economist Mr Kwame Pianim has criticized the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for stationing officers in shops to collect taxes.
He condemned this approach and further described it as ‘irritating’.
He explained in an interview with TV3’s Paa Kwesi Asare on Wednesday October 26 that the decision came at a time Ghanaians were going through untold hardships.
He said “cut expenditure, not planting GRA officers in shops, people are suffering, when people are suffering that is not when you irritate them.
“Things are not going well and we are looking for the President to come up the way he did during Covid, we need a credible message from him that ‘I am going to cut expenditure to stabilize the economy’.”
The GRA recently positioned its officers at shops, restaurants, and other businesses in some parts of the country including the Ashanti region.
The officers were tasked to take details of sales for tax purposes.
This infuriated the shop owners leading to the shut down to protest against the GRA’s action.
This attracted flak from some quarters including a Deputy Communications of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Ernest Owusu Bempah.
Mr Owusu Bempah called for the sacking of the GRA boss for what he believed was a poor approach to collecting taxes.
“What is his motivation for doing this in the Ashanti Region which is the stronghold of the NPP? Who is behind him?
“You don’t put system in place, no consultation done before you roll out this, the man should be sacked,” he said in a statement.