The Minister for Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has indicated plans to reform the country’s Value Added Tax (VAT) system, to enhance collection of domestic revenue for the state.

According to him, this has become critical due to the inefficiencies in the current system, which is not yielding the necessary results.

Speaking on the first day of the National Economic Dialogue in Accra, Dr. Forson emphasized the need for significant reforms.

He pointed out that crucial reforms are needed to help the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to meet its 200 billion cedis revenue target for 2025.

“Ghana is lagging behind in tax revenue collection and more significantly, VAT. This will mean we need urgent reforms to rationalize our VAT regime because currently it has been distorted and there is very little compliance”, he said.

He revealed that VAT target was missed in 2024, creating a revenue gap that impacted on the economy.

“The VAT gap is huge, last year, the GRA programmed to increase the VAT to 32 percent but unfortunately they ended up doing only 17 percent. Clearly this is below inflation and that should tell you that there is a significant problem” he noted.

The two day forum in Accra is under the theme; Resetting Ghana, Building the Economy We Want Together”.

On his part, the Chairman of the National Economic Dialogue, Dr. Ishmael Yamson disclosed plans to keep the economic dialogue as a platform for private the sector to engage government on key policy concerns.

According to him, this will help the resetting economy agenda of the government to help the private sector play key roles in the initiatives.