The Bank of Ghana has revealed that the country recorded a gain in its domestic Value Added Tax (VAT) collection in 2023.

In its May 2023 Monetary Sector Report, the Central Bank indicated that domestic VAT collections increased by 92.4% on a year-on-year basis from GHS649.93 million to GHS1.250 billion.

Cumulatively, total domestic VAT for the first quarter of 2023 went up by 76.8% to GHS3,196 billion compared to GHS1.808 billion for the corresponding period of last year. This implies that consumer spending soared during the period in question.

Total direct taxes collected also observed a hike, increasing by 37.7 percent year-on-year to GHS4,788.55 million in March 2023, relative to GH¢3,478.67 million recorded in the same period in 2022.

According to the Bank of Ghana, this pushed direct taxes collected for the first quarter of this year up by 65.0 percent to GHS10,773.16 million, from GHS6,529.91 million for the same period last year.

In terms of contributions of the various sub-tax categories, corporate tax accounted for 59.9 percent, Income tax (PAYE and Self-employed) accounted for 27.6 percent, while “Other Tax Sources” contributed 12.5 percent. This arose from activities in the manufacturing sub-sector, the Central Bank noted.

Also, retail sales, which involves selling goods or services directly to individual consumers for personal use or consumption, posted a strong positive performance in March 2023.

Retail sales increased by 44.9 percent year-on-year to GHS165.20 million in March 2023, up from the GHS114.05 million recorded in the same period in 2022.

On a month-on-month basis, retail sales improved by 19.2 percent in March 2023 from GHS138.60 million in the preceding month. In cumulative terms, retail sales for the first quarter of 2023 went up by 30.3 percent.

Source: The Independent Ghana