The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has restrategised its effort in getting people to comply with their tax obligations through a nation-wide tax compliance education.
In the light of this, the Authority, in partnership with the Information Services Department (ISD) would on November 01, launch a nation-wide tax compliance campaign dabbed “Our Taxes Our Future”, to educate the populace as to how to accept and voluntary honour their tax obligations.
Speaking at the launch on 1st November, 2017 in Accra, Mr. Emmanuel Kofi Nti, the acting Commissioner-General of GRA, said the tax campaign is also meant to increasing awareness among Ghanaians on tax issues, enhance their understanding and appreciation of the importance of taxes and the benefits to national development.
Mr. Nti revealed that, many Ghanaians are engaged in income earning activities, especially in the informal sector, only about 1.2 million of them are registered for paying taxes. And out of this, about one million people are in the formal sector and about 200,000 in the informal sector.
In view of this, he said there is the urgent need to reverse the low contribution of the informal sector, which plays a dominant role in the economy, to enable it to contribute its quota to national development.
“This is a huge task, which calls for the involvement of all Ghanaians and to bring as many people as we can to the tax net and help bridge the gap between public expenditures and revenues,” he noted.
Further more, he said as tax mobilisation is a shared responsibility between citizens and the tax administration, GRA could not do it alone and thus, collaborating with organisations such as the National Commission for Civic Education, the Information Services Department and the media to execute the campaign, by carrying the discussions and messages to all districts, churches, mosques, markets, community meetings, buses, ‘trotros’ and among other places.
Mr. Kofi Nti called on all Ghanaians to support the GRA with relevant information about various business activities in their vicinity to enable them to bring the business operators into the tax scope.
He assured that, aside of being rewarded with some percentage of the tax recovered from such payments, the identities of citizens would also be kept confidential.
“It is my hope that with the cooperation of the public, GRA will from now be in a position to increase revenue collection to appreciable levels to considerably reduce Ghana’s dependence on foreign aid,” he noted.
At this point, the Minister of Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta who launched the campaign, seized the opportunity to urged Ghanaians to honour their tax obligations to support the country’s capacity to deliver on public goods such as education, health and security and many more.
According to him, there was the need for Associations and groups to take interest and play proactive roles in encouraging members to fulfil their tax obligations for the development of the country.
Mr. Paa Kofi Ansong, a member of the Council of State, who chaired the launch, said the campaign is a call to action for all Ghanaians to contribute to build the country.
“It takes a great vision to launch a campaign of this magnitude to educate the public as well as encourage all potential taxpayers to regularise their operations and documents,” he said.
Mr. Ansong finally said, there is the need for all and sundry to rally behind the GRA and its partners, for this great initiative which is geared towards the development of our dear nation.
By:Sammy Adjei/Newsghana.com.gh
