‘Ghana needs effective, efficient tax system’
The Chairman of the Board of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) and a Chartered Accountant, Professor Kwame Bosiako Omane Antwi, has asked the country to opt for an effective and efficient tax system rather than the introduction of more taxes.
Advertisement
Delivering his concluding remarks as the chairman for the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting series last Tuesday in Accra on the topic: “The new Tax Law; Its implication for the economy and businesses”, he said: “We don’t need new taxes as such. What we have now let us hold on to it because we need an effective and efficient tax collection system.
“We need taxpayers; people who are gainfully employed, making money and paying into the tax system.”
No politics in taxation
Admitting that taxes were a complex subject to broach, Prof. Omane Antwi asked for simplification as taxes were needed to advance civilisation.
He, nonetheless, appealed that the issue of taxation must not be politicised or discussed with emotions.
“When taxes are mentioned, people bring in emotions but there is no need to be political about taxes because Adam Smith in a classic work, the Wealth of Nations said ‘governments are the same. There is no act which one government sooner learns of another than that of drawing money from the pockets of the people.’
“So whether it is so and so party, they will draw money from your pockets because you want civilisation,” he stated.
Prof. Omane Antwi called on the government to pay attention to the theme: “Efficient and effective tax collection system”, saying he believed once that was done, there would be no need for more taxes but enough money would be collected to advance civilisation.
Few tax-paying Ghanaians
Reiterating President John Mahama’s assertion that only 30 per cent of Ghanaians paid taxes when he interacted with a section of the Ghanaian community in Japan recently, the Managing Director of GCGL, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, said it was the reason the tax burden was so heavy on the few Ghanaians currently paying taxes.
“This is especially critical for Ghana which is dominated by the informal sector which pays no direct taxes,” he stated.
Mr Ashigbey noted that as a consequence, there was the need for a lot of resources to fix the infrastructure deficit and provide all the social services that a middle-income country would need but which the country took for granted.
“Indeed there is so much that is required to transform this country of ours, Ghana,” he stated.
Mr Ashigbey reminded the meeting that no country could transform and develop itself through aid, and added that it was the reason many countries were now seeking partnership other than handouts or so-called aid from the developed world.
He said if Ghana had to wean itself off external aid, then there was the need to internally generate resources. “Taxes, therefore, become an attractive option for the state but the challenge arises when it wants to use taxes – how much burden should the citizens carry?”
After asking some rhetorical questions, Mr Ashigbey said he believed the answer lay in the government, academia and the private sector’s collaboration, which was what the breakfast meeting sought to do.
Questions, contributions from participants
When contributions and questions were invited from participants, a management consultant, Nii Badu, asked if the rulings of the Commissioner General of the GRA were final as averred by the Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper, during his presentation or that the taxpayer had the opportunity to appeal against them.
In his response, Mr Terkper said the commissioner-general’s rulings were not final and that an appeal could be filed against them in the court by any tax-paying Ghanaian.
Another participant, Mr Daniel Anim, of the Institute of Certified Economists also asked how illegal miners referred to as ‘galamsey’ operators could be educated on the need to pay taxes on their incomes.
In response, the Deputy Commissioner in charge of Policy and Programmes at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Mr Edward Gyamerah, said the registered small-scale miners with the Ghana Minerals Commission were less than 2,000 so to get all ‘galamseyers’ to pay tax was very difficult.
“But those who are doing the illegal business are in hundreds of thousands so to get all of them and tax them is very difficult. The approach we are currently using is that those who are going to buy the product, we have met and discussed with them to factor in the tax component in their cost build-up so that they need not tell the ‘galamseyer’ that I have taken five per cent withholding tax,” he stated.
Advertisement
He said it was the purchaser who would, therefore, render account to the GRA on the product bought from the miners.
Mr Bartholomew Darko, an Information Technologist, asked why the GRA offices across the country were not networked to allow many Ghanaians fulfil their tax obligations and access electronic information.
Mr Terkper replied that the GRA had district offices and was in the process of going online so that information could be accessed anywhere.
Writer’s email: [email protected]