Ghana loses $2.1bn on tax incentives annually – Study

Ghana is said to be losing about 2.1 billion dollars annually due to tax incentives and holidays alone.

This is contained in a new study conducted by Tax Justice Network Africa in Ghana and two other African countries namely Tanzania and Zambia.

Policy Lead in charge of Tax and Extractives at the Tax Justice Network Africa, Kwesi Obeng, has therefore urged government to take a critical look at its tax regime to help save the country huge sums of money.

Speaking to Starr Business ahead of the launch of the report in partnership with the Ghana Integrity Initiative, Mr. Obeng said: “Corporate tax incentives including the tax holidays…we give [out] , we found out for example that Ghana lost about $2.1billion and Nigria about $2.9billion. But if you look at the size of the Nigerian economy and Ghanaian economy it means that Ghana disproportionately lost more revenue..”

He added: “$billion doesn’t make sense to us or the average person and if you break it down you are talking about ten Ridge hospitals in one year that we have lost. So those are some of things that we need to address.”