Chartered Economist Emmanuel Amoah Darkwah has outlined some measures that could help the country resolve its financial crisis.
He believes the tax net in Ghana was narrow with our tax to GDP ratio less than 15%.
According to him, Ghana should be doing about 42%.
Speaking on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm, he said the tax exemptions in the country were far too many with the country losing about 5% of our GDP to tax exemptions.
He explained that we always struggle to mobilize enough revenue to fund our expenditure requirements.
This he lamented has made the country to
borrow for supplementary funds and this has escalated our debt burden.
He maintained that as a middle-income country, our tax revenue to Gross Domestic Product was low.
He said we must strive to meet the acceptable standard to close the gap.
The other point he raised was for the government to cut down on its expenditure.
He was of the view that the government should have rolled out a component-based secondary education than the free SHS which is draining the economy and creating problems for us.
“The budget for some of the government machinery is excessive and it is not helping us. More importantly, illicit financial flow and other fiscal indiscipline are creating problems for us”.
He further urged the country to reduce its importation.
“As a country, we are spending in excess of about $1 billion importing rice alone in Ghana although we can produce it in Ghana. We’ve not talked about poultry, oil, and vegetables. We know our problems and we have to be resolute in solving them otherwise, we will go to the IMF and it will still amount to nothing.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
