Economist, Political analyst and Senior fellow of IMANI Africa, Dr Theo Acheampong has said the excessive provision of tax exemptions to attract investment is ineffectual to the country's development.

Speaking to Samson Lardy Anyenini on Newsfile, Dr Acheampong said the country is losing a significant amount of revenue needed to generate and undertake developmental projects because of unrestrained tax exemptions.

"Because of our haste to attract investment, we are giving far too many of these tax exemptions that are not rationalised and connected to an industrial policy strategy.

"Basically what happens is that the country is collecting less of the revenue," he said.

According to him, investors who are enticed by the country's policies often do not engage in local transactions to keep the profits in the country but rather take their resources outside the country.

"These companies come in and do what they want to do, export outside and sometimes the profits are not repatriated into the country."

Dr Theo Acheampong advised the next administration come 2021 to ensure that moderate tax exemptions are given out to national and foreign investors and businesses.

"That is the dichotomy any government that comes in 2021 will have to address. Yes, you want to attract investments and grow investments but you also want to improve your revenue generation in the equation.

"And one of the steps to do that is to rationalise tax exemptions that we give all over the place to enterprises including multi-nationals," he stated.