Out of about 7.9 million registered tax payers in the country, only about 1.5 million pay taxes.
This was revealed by a Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr. Alex Ampaabeng at the launch of the 8th Ghana Economic Update by the World Bank.
According to him, his outfit and the Ghana Revenue Authority are presently cleaning the tax database to ensure the nation accrue more tax revenue.
He continued that the government will do everything possible to improve the fiscal environment.
According to him, the government will reduce the human interface with respect to tax collection and improve digital collection.
Going forward, reducing the human interface is key to growing our [Ghana’s] tax revenue. Then Ministry of Finance is working with the GRA to reduce lots of tax infractions.”
Ghana’s tax collection has been low relative to its peers. Between 2017 and 2021, Ghana’s average tax collection was 13.2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
This was well below the Sub-Saharan Africa average and 8.0 percentage points short of the country’s estimated tax capacity of 21.2% of GDP.
The World Bank report identified areas of inefficiencies within Ghana’s tax policy framework and compliance mechanisms.
Areas the report identified where this could be enhanced include rationalising large tax expenditures, that have contributed to the overall decline of tax revenues. This it said would require striking the balance between reducing revenue losses and the potential distributional and social impacts.
The World Bank said if addressed these could help ensure macroeconomic stability and generate resources necessary for sustainable long-term growth and poverty reduction efforts.