GRA Launches National Tax Campaign to Encourage Voluntary Compliance

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has launched a national tax campaign to encourage Ghanaians, especially persons in the informal sector, to voluntarily honour their tax obligations to accelerate development in the country.

The tax campaign, dubbed "Our Taxes Our Future" will be carried out by stakeholders like the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Information Services Department (ISD) and the media, which will see to it that the general public is sensitised on the need to pay their taxes regularly with focus on the informal sector.

At the launch of the campaign on Tuesday in Accra, the Commissioner-General of GRA, Mr Emmanuel Kofi Nti, said the tax campaign was meant to increase tax awareness among the citizenry, enhance understanding on the need to pay taxes and also appreciate the importance of taxes to national development.

He charged the general public to see tax payment as a civic responsibility, which everybody engaged in income earning activities, should comply with. "There is the need for us to comply with our tax obligations as citizens; we have to see tax payment as a civic obligation."

Mr. Nti stated that even though many Ghanaians were engaged in income earning activities, especially in the informal sector, many of them did not pay any tax which ended up creating a huge gap between public expenditures and revenue generated by the state.

He lamented that "the contribution of the informal sector to total tax revenue is very little despite the fact that the economy is dominated by the informal sector. This obviously creates a huge gap in the national kitty."

The Deputy Minister for Finance, Madam Abena Osei Asare, who launched the campaign on behalf the Minister, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, urged Ghanaians to pay their taxes regularly to fast-track the development of the country and also help achieve the president's vision of Ghana beyond aid.

"I urge you to clear all barriers and improve on your measures put in place to collect taxes from the informal sector" she stated

She also urged the GRA to put pragmatic measures to make the payment of tax more open and easier for the citizenry especially with persons in the informal sector.

Source: ISD (Stephen Nii Awuley Ashong)

Read Full Story