Tax to GDP ratio alarming – Finance Minister

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has admitted that the country's current tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio is quite alarming.

According to him, the tax to GDP ratio is much lower than it should be, a situation he believes poses a serious challenge to the country's economy.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 38th annual CATA Technical Conference here in Accra, Mr Ofori-Atta said, “We are in the middle of our budget season, and budget will be read on November 15, and the challenges are obvious to us in terms of where we are as a nation. Currently, tax to GDP is about 16% which is much lower than it should be since we should be looking at about 22% to 25%, and that poses a challenge.”

Mr Ofori-Atta spoke of the need to find new ways of generating revenue, particularly since the government is losing so much money through the abolishment of a number of taxes.

“As part of the modernization and reform process, the government of Ghana announced a series of reforms in our 2017 budget statement. Arising from these reforms, some taxes, actually 13 or 14 taxes were abolished while others were reduced significantly...But to continue with this type of reform of reducing taxes is the need for us to find effective ways of raising revenue, mobilizing through technology”, he said.

The 38th annual Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators (CATA) Technical Conference, hosted by the Ghana Revenue Authority, is themed "Leveraging Technology to enhance Revenue Administration". The conference started on Monday, November 6 and will run till Friday, November 10, 2017.