Expand tax net – ISSER

The Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER), has urged government to broaden the tax net in the country to rake in the projected revenue target for the year 2018.

According to Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, total revenue and grants for the year was over GHS28 million compared to the projected target of over GHc 31 million, which represents a shortfall in revenue mobilisation.

Speaking in an interview with Class Business on the sidelines of the post-budget analysis, Head of Economic Research at ISSER, Dr. Charles Ackah called on government to ensure it puts in a legislation that will ensure tax compliance especially for those in the informal sector.

He said: “Government must expand the domestic mobilisation net. Our tax revenues are still low. If you compare us to Malaysia or places that are lower income countries, their tax revenue to GDP is hovering around 40 per cent. Some countries like Sweden are 50 per cent of GDP and we are still holding below 20 per cent, which means that many people are not paying taxes.

“If you look at the budget and how much government is getting from self-employed, there are many self-employed people and 90 per cent of them are in the informal sector and we are not getting enough [taxes] from them.

“Also, we can talk about property rates, land lord issues and buying lands. In this country, you can buy land anywhere in the village and pay for it and they just demarcate the land for you and there’s no tax. It’s not formalised.

“The chiefs are selling land every day, and the buyer is not paying tax, the seller is not paying tax …and that’s a lot of money. People are selling houses and cars and don’t pay tax so we just think government should expand the tax net and if they do that they will rake in more revenue.”