Ghanaian Chartered Economist, Emmanuel Amoah-Darkwah, has condemned Ghanaian citizens who are causing the nation financial loss by refusing to pay their taxes.
He made this assertion in an interview via phone on the Epa Hoa Daben show with Don Kwabena Prah on Happy 98.9FM.
“In as much as the people paying taxes in the country are few, we also have a large number of people on the tax roll who do not pay at all,” he disclosed.
According to him, after the registration of the voter’s identification card and Ghana card, the analysis gathered was that less than half of the fraction of tax payers were honoring their dues. “We realized that there are potential tax payers of about 16.6million but we have just about 3-4million individuals paying tax,” he revealed.
He acknowledged that this great margin in tax payers is a fundamental issue to the nation as the number of people paying task are not enough. “Aside the numbers, most of those who are supposed to pay tax don’t pay. A fraction of the money that comes from tax is distributed in the reason of tax exemptions. This tax exemption is given to foreigners who invest in the country,” he explained.
He advised that there should be a comprehensive review on the tax exemption. “We’re falling short on the total revenue in GDP being around 15.6% when as a lower middle income country we should be doing around 20-22%. The review in our Gross Domestic Product will cause some balance to our nation,” he concluded.
Louisa Antiede Tetteh