GRA intensifies education to increase tax collection in the informal sector

Company News on Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Source: citinewsroom.com

2019-02-19

The Ghana Revenue Authority has stated that it will intensify its education activities to increase the collection of taxes from the informal sector.

The informal sector accounts for 70% of the economy, but only 2% of them pay their taxes.

The authority also revealed that their latest checks on tax payments showed that only 1.5 million of the expected six million taxpayers were fulfilling their responsibilities, including 200,000 in the informal sector.

The collection of taxes from people in the informal sector remained one of the biggest challenges for Ghana's tax authority.

To this end, tax collectors have, over the years, launched various programs to encourage individuals, such as traders and drivers, to fulfill their civil obligations, but this has not yielded much of results.

Although the informal sector contributes about 70 percent of the country's GDP, its income-generating potential far outweighs its potential.

In an interview with Citi Business News, the Assistant Commissioner for Communications and Public Relations at GRA, Kwesi Bobbie Ansah, said the GRA would continue its campaign on the tax identification number to raise awareness in the informal sector .

"Despite all the education we've done on the TIN to create awareness and broaden the tax base, I think more work needs to be done on this topic and that's exactly what that we are going to do this year. "

And for those who do not file their taxes, they will be punished, which includes "lawsuits".

Meanwhile, Maame Attah, a seamstress and a member of the informal sector, said workers like her would be encouraged to pay their taxes if they saw a correlated reaction to development in the country.

"We pay our taxes but we do not see the desired results. With the taxes we pay, we expect good roads, for example the road in my neighborhood is in poor condition. We also expect that there are good sanitary facilities, but we see very little of them. "

Another informal sector worker who is a taxi driver in an interview with Citi Business News said it was crucial that informal sector workers pay taxes.

"The taxes we pay have evolved, such as the government's free SHS policy, which benefits my nieces and nephews, so it's good that we all pay taxes."

Last year, the GRA imposed the tax identification number (TIN) in order to increase the country's net tax amount.