Passage of 3 tax bills timely!

The country’s Parliament late Friday night passed three tax bills to help rake in GH?4 billion annually to increase government revenue. 

They are Income Tax Amendment Bill, the Excise Duty Amendment Bill and the Growth and Sustainability Amendment Bill.

According to the government, the new taxes would increase the country’s tax to GDP from the current around 12 per cent (11.3 per cent in 2020) to about 18, which is still behind the sub-Saharan Africa’s average of 20 per cent though*.

However, if that materialises, it may be among the good figures across the globe because even the United States reported 18.7 per cent in December 2022, with the world average for 2020 pegged at 16.42 per cent, and Denmark topping the list with 34.07 while conflict-ravaged Somalia occupies the bottom place with zero per cent. 

We know that in absolute figures, amounts representing the percentages vary such that a certain country’s smaller percentage may translate into a bigger amount than another’s bigger percent, yet once the percentage is increasing, that must attract applause.

This is why we think Parliament has done well for approving the new tax bills.

We do not in any way want to give the impression that any opposition to the bills, as championed by the Minority, is out of place.

We think the country currently needs more money than ever before and so all good sources of revenue must be exploited.

It has deficits in various payments such as District Assembly Common Fund and subsidies or grants to be given certain establishments, so savings made in one area or two cannot be justification for abandoning any available opportunity to make more revenue.

We believe that at the end of the day, what is the greater good must be supported by all, but there is an issue about the passage of the bills which is worrying.

If, as the government wants us to accept, the passage is one of the conditions precedent for Ghana to secure the US$3-billion it is seeking from International Monetary Fund, then that is sad enough.

This is because the impression is being created that the managers of the country are not making deep and broad considerations to increase tax revenue without external promptings.

That position erodes the confidence in the tax revenue mobilisation efforts in the country, viewed against the background that it constantly has to scan the circumstances and see what to do to leverage them to increase public revenue.

For this reason, Parliament must be commended for passing the three bills, no matter the circumstances preceding even their drafting.

We can see that the august House is increasing its efforts in enacting laws that meet present circumstances such as the one on LGBT.

It is our hope that the people’s representatives and legislators would seek information from their constituents and also do more observations to enact new laws or amend existing ones to deal with certain disturbing acts.

For instance, why is it that there is a law against noise pollution yet churches and herbal medicine peddlers persist in violating it?

It may not be only a question of enforcement but also how deterrent the related punishment is.

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