Finance Minister-designate Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has described as inaccurate reportage that he announced plans by the current Mahama-led administration to seek additional funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Majority Leader and Leader of Government Business said his comments were misrepresented.
He said this at his vetting by the Appointments Committee on Monday, January 13, 2025.
A number of media reports announced that the minister-designate had announced that the government would seek additional funding from the IMF.
But appearing before the committee, he clarified that his comments were that the government could request additional finances if the need arises.
On the issue of scrapping nuisance taxes, the minister-designate was affirmative in the decision by the government to scrap the betting tax.
According to him, the betting tax is not generating more than Ghc50 million, and scrapping it would have no major impact on our finances.
‘’Yes, we have obviously announced that we are going to scrap certain taxes. We will stick to just that. But it doesn’t mean that we don’t care about the revenue. We care about the revenue, and we have to do more on revenue. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that we should increase taxes. Some of the taxes out there are not bringing in the revenue that they should. For example, the betting tax is bringing in less than Ghc50 million a year. Is a nuisance tax. Scraping Ghc50 million will not mean anything in a way that will affect the economy if you are to adjust particularly from the expenditure side.
He also added that Ghana currently collects approximately 13.8% of GDP in terms of tax revenue, according to the latest data he had cited as part of the transition.
‘’It is obvious we can do better. I have studied the Ghanaian economy for some time, and I can say without mincing a word that Ghana has huge potential when it comes to tax revenue mobilisation. You don’t have to necessarily increase taxes before you rake in revenue. We the handles, what we need to do is to improve compliance. I will work with the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Tax Policy Unit of the Ministry of Finance to increase compliance and to raise the revenue as much as we can.
‘’In the medium term, it is my vision, when approved, to increase the tax revenue from 13.8% to about 16% to 18%,’’ he stated.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
