The government is being urged to announce clear measures that will lead to the collection of more property and income taxes than consumer taxes ahead of the presentation of the 2022 mid-year budget review on Monday, July 25, 2022.
According to Tax Analyst Francis Timore Boi, the country’s over-reliance on consumer taxes is affecting the government’s domestic revenue mobilization drive as well as efforts to increase the country’s tax to GDP ratio.
The country’s current tax to GDP ratio is 12%, which is lower than the Sub-Saharan Africa average of 16.5 percent.
In an interview with Citi Business News on the matter, Mr. Boi noted that a rebalancing of Ghana’s tax regime is needed.
“Taxation is based on some taxes, that is, if you earn income you pay income tax if you consume you pay consumption tax, if you hold property you pay property tax. But then we have left these other elements of taxation and we are focusing on consumption tax, leaving persons earning income, especially those in the informal sector.”
“So we need to spread the concept across. Possibly we need to rebalance the way our tax system operates. We also need to get the Tax Exemptions Bill passed without delay,” he added.
