The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Ken Ashigbey, says the government’s agenda to digitise the economy will make it easier for the payment of taxes, especially by the country’s informal sector.
Collection of taxes from people within the informal sector has remained one of the biggest challenges for the Ghana Revenue Authority.
Although the informal sector contributes about 70 per cent to the country’s economy, just two per cent of them pay their taxes.
To this end, the tax collectors have over the years initiated various programmes to encourage individuals such as traders and commercial drivers to fulfill their civil obligations, but that has not yielded much results
But according to Mr Ashigbey, it would be beneficial to embrace a more digitised way of taxing to widen the tax net and capture all Ghanaians so as to gain more revenue for the country.
He said, “The challenge in Ghana is that there are a lot more people who are outside the tax net. Because of that, our tax rate is quite high. It is those in the formal sector who pay but most of those in the informal sector who make a lot more money do not pay their taxes.”
“That’s why government’s digital strategy is so important. Not only would it make the tax collection efficient and ensure that all the loopholes that exist can be cut off but it also can spread the tax net so that we can reduce the incidence of the taxation, get a few more people into the tax net and get more money for people,” he told citibusinessnews.com.
