Tax practitioner calls for efficient revenue collection

Accra, Aug. 5, GNA - Mr Pius Austin, a tax practitioner at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP), has called for efforts to mobilize more domestic revenue to meet the country's expenditure to wean her of donor funding. He said measures to broaden the base of existing tax types and revenue sources rather than increasing the existing tax levels must be adopted to increase revenue for the country. Mr Austin told GNA that this was the better way of improving efficiency of taxes and revenue collection because so may inequalities existed in the tax system and increasing it would only place a burden on the few known tax payers.

Figures from the MOFEP show that the country's domestic revenue resources at current level meet only 60 per cent of total expenditure. Mr Austin said zero-rating of goods admissible under concessionary rate of taxes, aggressive fencing of income tax net around the informal sector would help to drag more people into the tax net. He also mentioned a reduction of tax exemptions and concessions on donor financed projects and diplomatic imports among other things. Mr Austin suggested the setting up of a Monitoring and Control Unit at either CEPS or MOFEP to oversee all administrative matters concerning exemptions.

He also suggested that automated and integrated security monitoring and audit-enabled systems and infrastructure be acquired on franchise from proven private operators and installed to improve the weak links in the collection of revenue by the revenue agencies. He said government's move to integrate the revenue agencies would go a long way to enhance taxation and tax collection in the country.