2018 Budget: Government to improve property tax collection system

Finance Minister ken Ofori-Atta has outlined government's plan to improve the property tax collection system, effective next year.

According to Mr. Ofori-Atta, a collaboration between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development will hasten the ‘assessment and collection of taxes’ by Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) from 2018.

Presenting the 2018 budget Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Ofori-Atta said the move was aimed at enhancing efficiency in the mobilization of resources going forward. “To enhance efficiency both in the valuation of properties and revenue collection process from this source, in 2018, GRA will collaborate with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to support the MMDAs in the assessment and collection of property taxes”, Mr. Ofori-Atta explained.

He added that the initiative was a constitutional directive, which enjoins ‘MMDAs to mobilise revenue for provision of services’. He admitted that collection of tax has been quite low due to insufficient valuation capacity and the high cost of valuation.

This, the Finance Minister confessed, has affected the economy, since ‘a major source of revenue is property tax’.

Property tax is levied annually by local authorities on the estimated value of the property, depending on the classification of the area where it is located.