Economist outlines 2 major factors government must consider in revenue generation

Economist and Senior lecturer at the Department of Finance at the University of Ghana Business School, Dr. Lord Mensah has indicated that Government must consider how to achieve their revenue target and its return on investments in the revenue generation structure.

According to him, despite the various revenue generation options available to government, prioritizing the aforementioned factors can greatly boost a country’s revenue generation system.

Speaking to Samuel Eshun on e.TV Ghana’s Fact Sheet Show, he said: “Look at our local environment and the taxes that we generate here. Clearly, Governments over the years have been struggling in their revenue target.

The questions that come into mind most of the time is whether the revenue target that we set most of the time are realistic or not. And then possibly, if we are not hitting the revenue target, we look at the investments that we have made to enhance revenue collection. Are they yielding? If they are not yielding what is not making them yield”.

Furthering on the point of making investments to enhance revenue collection, he made mention of “paperless port system, some digital address systems and identification cards” introduced by the Government to enhance the revenue collection in the country.

While he expects to see these innovations pay off, he warns that going forward, things will not be that easy.

Meanwhile, Dr. Lord Mensah has educated Ghanaians on the financing options available for the incumbent Government as he lists taxes, borrowing to finance, grants and other sources of funding from export and oil export as sources of feeding the revenue purse.