Ghana’s President has described as unacceptable the situation where out of 30 million citizens only 1.5 million are captured in the tax net.
Speaking at the Africa Investment Forum, H.E. Akufo-Addo declared his government was working to rope in more citizens to be alive to their tax duties in helping actualise his ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ mantra.
For only 6% of the population to pay tax hinders infrastructural development efforts he added; stressing at the 2019 budget reading on November 15; the tax net will capture a lot more people engaged in productive work.
According to Ghana’s first gentleman; developed countries enacted appropriate policies which accelerated their developmental agenda and so his government was putting in measures to boost agricultural growth as well as ensure the effectiveness of the financial sector.
With Ghana’s economy largely boosted by the informal sector, developing a reliable data base to track those in productive work and appropriately tax them has been a challenge for preceding governments. With a proper system in place the current government can have control of a larger fund pool to pursue projects while not overburdening those already in the tax pool.