E-Levy will broaden tax base - Deputy Finance Minister

Deputy Minister for Finance, Abena Osei-Asare, has described the proposed E-Levy as an integral measure that would widen the tax net to cover the nation’s development aspirations beginning this year.

She said the nation’s tax burden had long been borne by less than ten per cent of the populace, and that a culture of “burden-sharing” would be introduced through the E-Levy, to power the stride towards the desired nation status. 

The deputy minister was addressing the 2022 management retreat of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in Ho.  

“As we indicated in the 2022 budget statement, the continual dependence of the nation on only a small fraction of law-abiding citizens (about 2.4 million people) to carry the burden of providing the needed resources for development is unsustainable. The situation defeats all the tenets of economic prudence and moral justice. We, therefore, need to inculcate the culture of burden-sharing amongst our population," She said.

“We must all wake up to the notion that the country cannot continue to develop in this manner. We must all contribute our fair share to building the country as we all benefit from the numerous social interventions that government continues to offer to the citizenry."

“The Electronic Transaction levy (E-Levy) is one of such measures in our attempt to broaden the tax base and effectively provide the support as we transition towards building a truly entrepreneurial nation. To move to this state, we must be more innovative, bold and radical as we seek to mobilize enough revenue to meet our objectives,” she stated. 

Abena Osei-Asare said the Ministry would continue to secure the GRA as an efficient collector of tax revenue as it reorganized fiscal policies and rejuvenate the private sector entrepreneurship amid interventions to address the nation’s financial challenges. 

“We expect the Ghana Revenue Authority to be at the forefront of this push to increase revenue and will provide all the support needed to attain this vision,” she added. 

The theme for the three-day retreat is “Achieving the 2022 revenue target. My role as a manager”, and has management of the Authority from across the various sectors in attendance. 

The GRA, which exceeded its revenue target for the year 2021, had been tasked to collect 80 billion cedis for the year 2022, a 40 per cent increase. 

Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, Commissioner-General of the GRA, attributed the previous year’s accomplishment to the Government’s digitisation ambitions in which the Authority’s transformation agenda rested, and assured that it would continue influence innovations within operational structures. 

He said the GRA was awaiting the coming E-Levy as a “reliable stream of revenue” and outlined plans this year to cast the tax net over more classes of the business community, including the gaming and sports betting industries. 

The Commissioner-General also announced plans to deepen coverage of property and rent tax, and also affirmed the resolve to identify and tax individuals of high net worth.