Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has revealed that the government is putting measures in place to check the “structure and nature of the taxes” in the country.
This, he said, is to address the challenges faced by the government to rake in more revenue to save the grappling economy, partly due to tax evasion,
He made the disclosure during a meeting with the business community on July 24, 2023, in Accra to solicit their inputs to revise this year’s budget.
Mr. Ofori Atta raised concerns about tax evasion, charging them to be diligent in their tax payments as the country strives to revive its grappling economy.
Tax evasion is the act of intentionally and illegally avoiding paying taxes or underreporting income to reduce tax liability.
He said the government is putting measures in place to check the “structure and nature of the taxes”.
“What do we do when all of these religious people sit in the front seat of the church and still no one wants to pay taxes? To a certain degree, yes,the structure and nature of the taxes must be relooked at,” he fumed.
The minister acknowledged that revisiting the structure and nature of taxes was essential to ensuring greater public compliance.
During the meeting, the Finance Minister acknowledged the existence of inefficiencies and concerns in the way the country’s budgetary deficit has been managed.
In 2022, total revenue and grants amounted to GH¢65,399 million (11.0 percent of GDP), compared with the target of GH¢67,307 (11.4 percent of GDP) and the GH¢49,108 million (10.7 percent of GDP) recorded in the corresponding period in 2021, according to the Finance Ministry.
Compared to the target for the period, the outturn for total revenue and grants represented a short fall by GH¢1,909 million or 2.8 percent and a year on-year growth of 33.2 percent. The shortfall in revenue stemmed from the less robust performance recorded in all the revenue types.
In 2023, the government intends to collect total revenue and grants of GH¢143,956 million (18.0% of GDP) and is supported by permanent revenue measures – largely tax revenue measures – amounting to 1.35 percent of GDP.