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Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Emmanuel Kofi Ntim, has bemoaned the perennial low contribution of the informal sector to the country’s tax revenue.

Mr. Ntim disclosed this on Tuesday in Accra at the launch of the 2018 edition of the National Tax Campaign.

According to Mr. Ntim, even though the informal sector is the largest in terms of operators, constituting about 70 percent of the national economy, its contribution to tax revenue is sadly negligible about 2 percent.”

He observed that “this is clearly unacceptable and must be changed, and this is the reason why last year we organized the first tax campaign.”

Data from the Ministry of Finance showed that about six million people are supposed to be in the tax net in Ghana, but only 1.5 million of them are currently paying taxes.

Out of the 1.5 million taxpayers, it’s estimated that only 200,000 of them are from the informal sector, with the rest in the formal sector.

Mr. Ntim stated that going forward the Authority will take stringent steps to ensure that players in the informal sector comply with their tax obligations to the state.

Public Warning

According to him, “With the tax amnesty opportunity offered by GRA to enable tax offenders regularize their tax affairs and come clean having ended, GRA will now bite and bite hard.”

He added that “we will pretty soon embark on the name and shame, as well as prosecute tax debtors. I therefore wish to caution the public to be law-abiding and comply fully with the tax laws.”

The Commissioner-General said this year’s campaign themed: “Our taxes, Our future,” is intended to deepen the conversations about tax compliance in Ghana.

“GRA believes in sustaining the education and sensitization of the public on tax issues, but especially informal sector operators so that together we will contribute to the national development agenda.”

He said, “I believe we all recognize the fact that without the contributions of the citizenry in the form of tax payment, the good intentions of government will come to naught.”

“It’s therefore the mark of good citizenship to not only insist on our rights on what government should do for us, but also carry out our part of the bargain by voluntarily undertaking the four important obligations of any citizen earning income, namely registering with the tax administration, paying taxes on due dates, filing returns on due dates and making full disclosure on our transactions.”

Barriers

Minister of Finance, in a speech read on his behalf by one of his deputies, Abena Osei-Asare, urged GRA to remove all barriers that make tax payment a challenging task for the general public.

He stressed that GRA must improve the payment of taxes in the country, saying “it’s not right for the majority in the informal sector to ride on the back of the few in the formal sector who contribute to government revenue.”