The Finance Minister highlighted an appalling situation of the revenue mobilization problems Ghana has to surmount in its bid to become a country beyond aid.
Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said, less than 10% of Ghanaians pay direct tax which is said to be ‘poor reflection’ on country.
The Minister juxtaposed this figure with the registered voter population of 17 million, which gives an indication of the number of Ghanaians aged 18 and over.
“Only 2,364,348 are bearing the burden of the entire population as taxpayers as of August 2021,” he outlined in his budget presentation in Parliament on Wednesday.
He said the trend needs to be addressed “to build a more equitable society.”
Giving a further breakdown, the Minister indicated that only 45,109 entities are registered as corporate taxpayers.
Only 54,364 persons are registered as self-employed taxpayers at the Ghana Revenue Authority, and only 136,198 entities are registered businesses at the Registrar-General’s Department as at August 2021, of which 80 percent are self-employed, the Minister added.
According to the figures the Finance Minister presented, the Greater Accra Region contributes almost 90 percent of Ghana’s domestic tax as of June 2021.
“The Ashanti, Western and Eastern regions together contribute barely to 3 percent of domestic taxes,” he added.
Mr. Ofori-Atta urged the country to resolve that “by the next census, we should have changed these statistics to become an Upper Middle-Income Country in line with our Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.”
“We must eclipse a 20% threshold of revenue to GDP ratio by 2024,” he noted as a target.
