Lack of understanding of GRA policies behind public’s non-compliance with tax laws
By Selorm GBORBIDZI & Beatrice AGBO, Accra
The Commissioner in charge of the Domestic Tax Revenue Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Edward Gyamerah, has attribute the general aversion to the Authority’s revenue mobilisation efforts to a lack of understanding of their policies, and misinformation.
This he says has led to the GRA’s efforts at raising more revenue being met with lots of resistance from the business community and the general public.
He however stated that the GRA has rolled out several digital tools that have brought its services close to the populace, while forging closer links with the media to educate the public on how they could easily fulfil their tax obligations.
Gyamerah made these points in a statement read on his behalf by the Assistant Commissioner and Special Technical Advisor to the Commissioner General, Dominic Naab.
He said, “Revenue collection in Ghana continues to be a challenge, especially when we have to introduce new tax policies that will rope in more eligible persons into the tax net, or plug loopholes in the tax net, that will ultimately help the GRA to get the right amount of taxes from taxpayers.”
This difficulty is borne from factors such as the size of the informal sector, tax evasion, illicit financial flows, money laundering and a general aversion to tax payment.”
He was speaking at the Media Foundation for West Africa’s (MFWA) public forum, held under the theme, ‘Improving domestic resource mobilisation and combating illicit financial flows in Ghana: the role of the media and other stakeholders.’
Dominic Naab, in a panel discussion it is only by establishing a clear, coherent system that the more people will voluntarily report to pay taxes.
He indicated that steps are underway to amend the legal framework to ensure that more people report.
The Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Mary Addah, noted that the fight against illicit financial flow has hit a snag due to the proliferation of institutions, leading to what she termed as a turf war, where institutions are jostling for control over cases, “which distracts from the actual fight against corruption.”
She also lamented the situation where Ghana has all the laws on paper, but cannot muster the resources needed to carry out the work of tackling corruption and tracking illicit financial flows.
She also called for more independence for the institutions meant to fight corruption, by removing some of the powers of the President, to enable these institutions function independently.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) National Consultant on Illicit Financial Flows, Dr Bishop Akolgo, called for a social transformative agenda that will focus on how to move the nation away from unproductive rent seeking to a productive economy.
He put the reluctance on the part kf citizens to pay their taxes to resignation from the Ghana project, saying, “that is why revenue numbers are so low. Because we do not have confidence that the taxes we pay will be used judiciously.”
