Tax Expert Francis Timore Boi has said that the timing of the newly introduced tax policies is not appropriate given the current economic challenges faced by Ghanaians. However, he believes they are necessary to meet the conditions set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He acknowledged that the government had put itself in an unfortunate situation by failing to manage its finances, which led to the need for IMF intervention.
In an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he indicated that the IMF had earlier noted that Ghana’s tax revenue was minimal and in order to increase its GDP, the country needed to revamp its tax collection or introduce new taxes.
“Timing is not appropriate but we have placed ourselves in an unfortunate situation. At the time the finance Minister said the consequences of going to the IMF are dire this is the truth. Eventually we’ve gone to the IMF because we have failed to manage ourselves. Now the IMF said our tax revenue is minimal and it’s either we’re going to revamp our tax collection or introduce new ones to allow our GDP to increase. There was a condition that before the board will allow us we needed to re-look at our taxes. So it became part of the IMF conditionality that is why the introduction of these new taxes,” he said
The tax expert however explained that while aggressive tax mobilization could have been pursued without introducing new taxes, it would have taken a long time to yield results
“We may have gone on aggressive tax mobilization without introducing one but it will take time. We wouldn’t get the money in time and that is why the government thought it wise to introduce these taxes mostly on stuff that affect almost everybody,” he added.
This comes after Parliament approved three new taxes last Friday despite calls by several groups to reject the revenue policies. The bills include the Excise Duty Amendment Bill 2022, the Ghana Revenue Authority Bill 2022, and the Income Tax Amendment Bill 2022,
The government intends to generate about 4 billion cedis from the new taxes to take in more revenue and also secure a 3 billion dollar bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
By: Jude Tackie