Patronage of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA)’s tax-amnesty exercise, which seeks to grant a pardon to tax defaulters who come clean, has not been encouraging, the B&FT has been told.

The amnesty provides a limited time opportunity for taxpayers who have defaulted in filing their tax returns or paying their taxes to discharge their obligations, in exchange for a pardon for liabilities that they would have incurred, such as interest and penalties.

The GRA legislated the policy last year to improve tax-compliance and widen the tax-net. “So far many tax defaulters have not taken advantage of the initiative. Provisionally, the amnesty will run for a period of one year. We are expecting to receive good patronage, but if we don’t we may extend it,” said a senior official of the GRA.

“We want people to voluntarily come forward and declare their tax status. That is one objective. Another objective is that we want to widen the tax net,” he added. To take advantage of the amnesty, which will expire after September 2013, a defaulting individual or company that was not previously registered with the GRA must first register and submit all tax returns for the years in which their taxes have been in default.

GRA’s drive to boost tax-revenue collections comes at a time when government has outlined new measures to avert a fiscal explosion as expenditure continues to spiral ahead of revenues, threatening the attainment of key budgetary targets. The government’s budget deficit rose by almost three-fold in 2012 to 11.8 percent of GDP, fuelled by excessive spending on public wages and energy subsidies.

Earlier this month, Parliament passed a fiscal stabilisation levy and additional import levies to plug the deficit, which is forecast to narrow to 9 percent of GDP in 2013.

This year the GRA has been tasked to collect GH¢15.6 billion for the state, with GH¢7.4 billion expected from domestic direct tax, GH¢2.2 billion from domestic indirect tax, and almost GH¢6 billion from customs.