By
Mildred Siabi-Mensah GNA
Takoradi, June 18, GNA – Mr Abdalla
Ali-Nakyea, a Tax Consultant and Attorney has called on state institutions
tasked with fiscal planning and management to look at domestic sources of
revenue to boost and grow the economy as against the over-reliance on oil
proceeds.
“We have left domestic sources of revenue
mobilization and hinged our national budget on the expectations of oil, which
continue to be the bane of troubles”.
The Tax Consultant said, the country cannot
progress faster if it continually pegged its development targets on oil
resources, saying, “we are in the second quarter and oil prices are not so
well, FPSO Nkrumah is also shut down for maintenance. Where are we heading to
as a country?”
Mr Ali-Nakyea, who gave the advice during a
workshop organized by the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists
(IFEJ), in partnership with German Development Cooperation (GIZ), said “Ghana has no business borrowing if the
right structures were harnessed for its development”.
The workshop was to help financial and
economic journalists under the IFEJ to have a better understanding of the
current Mineral Development Fund (MDF), Mineral Revenue Management in Ghana and
the Mining Revenue Governance Framework.
He said “The monkey has a trick, before
leaving a branch, his hand is on another, we have the forestry and quarry
sector to develop together with other natural resources…we have no business
borrowing, all we need to do is to stop the black exploiting the black syndrome
and move from the “Paradox of Plenty”.
“To the Tax expertise, there were so many
innovative ways to generate funds internally, block some loop holes in tax
administration and contracting and also do away with greediness, and rather
sacrifice more for the betterment of the country.
“Why property rates when we cannot properly
evaluate properties and tax accordingly to raise more funds…our assemblies must
be trained by the Ghana Revenue Authority as directed by ACT 791, to make them
more empowered for the task ahead”.
Mr Emmanuel Kuyole, Executive Director, Center
for Extractives and Development Africa, wondered why Ghana continued to give
stabilization clauses after 22 years of democracy and its associated peace and
tranquility.
Touching on Mining Revenue Governance, the
Executive Director called for comprehensive rules on deposits and withdrawals,
investment plans, strong independent oversight, audit and set clear fund
objectives.
He said it was however, worrying that since
2016, when the MDF was instituted, issues with community development skills and
disbursement continued to be a major hurdle to breakthrough.
Mr Kuyole said citizens understanding of the
extractive sector, in particular, in recent times, was very key in order for
them to demand accountability from duty bearers.
“We are talking about the political Tripod
here: we have the rules, the institutions and we need to create the needed
understanding among the citizenry to ensure that citizens demand their due from
state actors”, he added.
According to him, when the citizenry are up to
the task on demanding answers from duty bearers, they often times did the right
thing as against low citizen participation.
Mr Kuyole therefore entreated the media to
educate the citizenry on issues of developmental and national concerns “as we
strive for a better Ghana”.
GNA