Editorial: Strengthening tax administration

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) assembled a high level delegation to embark on a tax administration and digitalisation visit to Finland, to tap into the Scandinavian country’s success story.

Designed by the African-Finnish Partnership on Taxation and Capacity in Africa (AFP-TCA), the visit is to strengthen African tax administration potentials through executive level knowledge exchange and practical insights for efficient taxation.

Technical Advisor to the Commissioner-General, Elsie Appau-Klu – who led the delegation together with Head of GRA’s Digital and Information Technology Department Mr. Sam Opoku-Boadu – represented Mr. Anthony Kwasi Sarpong, the Commissioner-General.

The week-long immersion and knowledge sharing visit from September 1-5 provided a great opportunity to learn about Finland’s happy taxpayer regime, which ensures friendly and voluntary tax compliance.

Addressing tax counterparts, Elsie highlighted strides being made by the Commissioner-General in widening Ghana’s tax net with a strong focus on the informal sector. She mentioned  Finland’s experiences in building a happy taxpayer society as a key point of interest to the GRA, since Ghana as a country is on a reset mission to augment its tax revenue mobilisation, deepen growth and development.

Efficient taxation is integral to nations’ sustainable development and economic resilience, playing a pivotal role in financing essential public services and infrastructure.

Additionally, the rapidly evolving digital economy presents unprecedented opportunities as well as formidable challenges, compelling tax administrations across the continent to accelerate their digital transformation.

Robust, innovative and transparent digital solutions are now essential to ensuring effective tax administration in this dynamic environment. The AFP-TCA initiative prioritises digitalisation as a key strategy for enhancing domestic resource mobilisation by improving tax administration capabilities, operational efficiency and taxpayer compliance.

For mineral-rich African countries, mining has great potential to generate significant tax revenues; however, the sector has often failed to deliver the expected financial benefits for a number of reasons – including aggressive tax planning, overly-generous tax incentives and weak tax administration.

For decades, governments in Africa have sought to attract foreign investment with tax incentives and preferential rates in tax treaties. Unfortunately, these instruments have not always had the desired effect and often led to substantial revenue losses for governments.

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