A Fiscal Policy expert at OXFAM Ghana, Dr. Alex Ampabeng, has asked the government to better account for designated taxes if tax compliance is to improve.

He argued that “government accountability around taxation is very weak, and that in itself does not enhance compliance.”

Dr. Ampabeng explained that these compliance challenges were a result of a lack of trust in the state.

He referenced the sanitation fee as an example of a tax for which the government has not properly accounted.

“Can we really sit down and ask ourselves what has the government done with that revenue? If you cannot account, compliance will suffer. We cannot talk about tax payment without saying what the taxes are used for” he quizzed.

Dr Ampabeng stressed that citizens would accept and comply with tax paying when “the taxes they are paying are not going down the drain”.

It was on the same tax compliance challenge that Ghana Revenue Authority was compelled to close 13 shopping centres on Wednesday, October 12, 2022, because their systems were not linked to an E-VAT Invoicing system that certified invoices and gave real-time sales reports.

The Authority engaged taxpayers concerning the issue and gave them two months grace period to hook onto the system, Mr Annan said.

Many traders in fast-moving goods, such as milk, gum, fruits, and vegetables, also closed their shops in Kumasi Metropolis in the Ashanti Region to protest government taxes they claim are exorbitant.

Source: The Independent Ghana