Ghana Revenue Authority launches second national tax campaign

Accra, Oct. 23, GNA – The Ghana Revenue
Authority has launched the second national tax campaign to deepen and sustain
its education on the importance and benefits of tax payment for continuous
development.

The campaign on the slogan #OurTaxesOurFuture”
is aimed at encouraging Ghanaians, especially the operators in the informal
sector to voluntarily pay their tax.

Speaking at the launch, Mr Emmanuel Kofi Nti,
the Commissioner-General GRA, said the tax campaign was aimed at increasing
awareness among Ghanaians on tax issues, enhance their understanding and
appreciation of the importance of taxes and the benefits to national
development.

He said the focus this year was on the
informal sector because it was the largest in terms of operators, constituting
about 70 percent of the national economy, but its contribution to revenue stood
at about two percent.

“I believe we all recognise the fact that
without the contributions of the citizenry in the form of tax payment, the good
intentions of government will come to naught,” he said.

Mr Nti said the six-month long campaign would
help to significantly change and affect peoples’ attitudes to greatly expand
the tax net and improve voluntary compliance.

Mr Nti said the campaign was going to be a
multifaceted one with the GRA collaborating with organisations such as the
National Commission for Civic Education, the Information Services Department
and the media to reach as many Ghanaians as possible.

He appealed for cooperation from Ghanaians and
also to tax defaulters to settle outstanding tax liabilities, increase
voluntary compliance in terms of tax payments and filing of returns and the
provision of relevant information about unknown and hidden businesses.

“We believe that with the cooperation of the
public, GRA will ultimately achieve a significant increase in revenue
collection,” he said.

Deputy Finance Minister, Abena Osei Asare
charged the GRA to make payment easier for citizens to widen the tax net.

She said there was the urgent need to bridge
the gap between the people who paid their taxes regularly and those outside the
tax net.

“Currently as we speak, we have about six
million people who are supposed to be on the tax net but we have only 1.5
people paying taxes regularly and out of this the informal sector contributed
200,000 of the 1.5 million.  This gap
must be bridged at all cost so we must do everything possible to change this
situation,” Ms Asare said.

GNA

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