The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has held an awards ceremony for more than 197 workers, who retired from the Authority in 2015.
The workers, including 35 women, had served the organization in different capacities, for between 8 and 42 years.
They each received plaques and flat screen television sets.
Mr George Blankson, Commissioner General of GRA, congratulated the retirees for their dedicated contributions to the Authority and the country over the years, saying they had helped to accelerate the country’s development and economic growth.
He said the revenue they mobilized had kept government’s programmes and activities running to improve the lives of the people.
Mr Blankson urged those in active service to aspire to work diligently so they can be proud of their contributions when the time comes for them to retire.
Touching on the take-over of the core functions of classification, valuation and risk management from the destination inspection companies, Mr Blankson said the teething challenges had been overcome and that the GRA would build on the successes chalked for improved performance in the future.
Dr Edward Larbi-Siaw, a Tax Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Finance, said the introduction of withholding taxes are not to punish taxpayers.
He said there was the need to educate people to the necessity to widen the tax base.
Comparing Ghana’s tax rates with those in some African countries, Dr Larbi-Siaw said the evidence had shown that Ghanaian rates were not as high as it was perceived.
He said while Ghana has income tax rate (CIT) of 25 per cent and Value Added Tax (VAT) of 17.5 per cent, Niger applies a rate of 30 and 19 percent respectively.
Burkina Faso has CIT of 28 per cent and VAT of 18 per cent.
Similar stories can be told of Togo and South Africa where the rates are 28 and 18 per cent; and 28 per cent CIT and 14 per cent VAT respectively.
Kenya, on the other hand, charges 30 and 16 per cent respectively, while in Cameroun CIT is 33 with VAT at 19.25.
CIT in Chad, he said, was 40 per cent and VAT was 18.6 per cent.
