The Finance Ministry has rejected criticisms that it is not being innovative enough in mobilizing tax revenue. The criticisms have come on the back of the 2011 budget which is proposing an increase in taxes and tariffs and introdicing new ones. Critics such as policy think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs believe the government is continuing to fall heavily on the few in the formal sector and needs to do more to expand the tax net to capture the informal sector. But Director of Budget, Patrick Kyei disagrees. He told Joy Business the ministry is already working to identify persons in the informal sector so it can capture them for tax purposes. He said given the structure of the informal sector, “we need to properly identify the people in the informal sector to be able to tax them so it is not [that] we are refusing to tax the people except that certain things need to be put in place for proper identification before we can actually spread the tax net.” Source: Joy Business/Ghana