Govt to target major potential taxpayers who are non-tax compliant - Bawumia

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia on Wednesday launched the Revenue Assurance and Compliance Enforcement (RACE) initiative to enhance the government's revenue mobilisation drive.

The RACE is a multi-agency initiative to identify and eliminate revenue leakages while reinforcing the culture of compliance by taxpayers.

It has, especially targeted players in the petroleum bunkering, gold and minerals export, port operations, transit goods, warehousing and free zone operations.

The initiative would empower the efforts of the government to stay the course in terms of its economic targets and to return the Ghanaian economy to a path of fiscal sustainability by 2024.

Vice-President Bawumia, who launched the initiative in Accra, said the implementers of the programme would devise a strategy to target major potential taxpayers who were non-tax compliant.

The effectiveness of RACE, the Vice-President explained, depended on the ability to leverage on technology and to integrate the rich databases from the Ghana-Card, the Tax Identification number, Digital Address System, Passport Office, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, among others.

The Vice-President stated that it would allow the government to reset the resource mobilization framework and to challenge itself to new heights in public finances whilst strategising for a rebound, following the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the government's ability to continue providing social interventions and the needed support to the private sector depended on its ability to mobilise and accumulate domestic revenues.

These are members of the steering committee for The RACE initiative:
Mr George Winful, Director, Revenue Policy Division, Ministry of Finance, Mr Ernest Akore, Senior Technical Advisor of the Minister, Mr Edward Kwaku Asomani, Deputy National Security Coordinator, Nana Attorbrah Quaicoe, Deputy Director, National Intelligence Bureau, and Mr Charles Owusu, Audit Transformation Advisor, Ghana Revenue Authority.