As the continent prepares to implement the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, Deputy Finance Minister Madam Abena Osei Asare has urged African countries to find new and innovative ways to mobilise and generate revenue.
According to the Deputy Minister, revenue collection will suffer in the short term as a result of the implementation.
The long-term benefits, on the other hand, would be enormous.
She was speaking on behalf of Minister Ken Ofori-Atta at the opening of the 7th African Tax Research Network (ATRN) Congress on Monday, September 5, 2022.
The Deputy Minister stated that revenue collection will be reduced, but we all know that the impact will be greatest given the trade between ourselves.
”In the medium term, the AFCTA is expected to improve trade, and therefore, will impact positively on our GDP growth.”
”To boost customs revenue mobilisation in the short term, African countries could resort to other revenue-enhancing measures that target domestic taxes. This could be through expanding the tax base by focusing on new streams of domestic tax-related revenue an example is the Digital Service Tax, and I believe you have all heard of the Electronic Transfer, the famous E-Levy Tax. These are new tax areas I believe we should venture into to help us increase our domestic tax revenue.”
She also emphasised the importance of countries considering the use of technology and big data analytics.
”In the case of Ghana, the digitization agenda by the current government is a step in the right direction that will provide unified and organized data for analysis by the revenue authorities to help bring in more people unto the platform from the informal sector.”
She claimed that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement is the largest trade bloc in the world, with enormous opportunities.
She stated that agreement would create more opportunities because it is a game changer that African countries must take advantage of.
According to the Deputy Minister, the agreement will create the world’s largest free trade zone in terms of the number of countries participating, citing a World Bank report.
According to her, the agreement connects 1.3 billion people in 55 countries with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion.
It has the potential to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty, but doing so will necessitate significant investments.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
