The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in Ashanti Region is anticipating improved revenue by end of the year.

Statistics for 2017 indicate that the region contributes only 4% of the total revenue collected annually.

The GRA has, therefore, engaged the Information Service Division and National Commission of Civic Education (NCCE) to spearhead tax education.

Assistant Commissioner of the GRA, Samuel Sakyi Duodu, says the initiative is yielding positive results.

 “We are collaborating with the information service and the NCCE. So they are also helping us. Information service vans go around, move throughout the nooks and crannies of the country and spread information. So they carry our message across the country and spread the message,” he said.

Mr Sakyi Duodu acknowledges GRA offices are not in every little part of the country so the need to involve these institutions to widen the education.

“You know GRA offices is not everywhere in Ghana. We engage the NCCE as well. They are supposed to teach people’s civic responsibilities and taxation is a civic responsibility for every citizen. They are also moving from churches, marketplaces, and various social activities etc to educate people about what tax is about and the need for them to pay,” he added.

Institution-based registration

After the launch of the tax identification week, the authority initiated registration of institutions and companies.

“All because of the education, now we are going from organisation to organisation because institutions are calling us to come register their workers. It will widen the tax net, a lot of people will be captured in the database,” Mr Sakyi Duodu was hopeful.

Mr Sakyi Duodu says the intensified education has increased voluntary tax compliance.

“Last year, we did some amount of work and now we are intensifying it and we can see changes, people who were paying 300 and 200 Ghana Cedis are now paying as much as 2000, 3000 Ghana Cedis etc.

“People are paying high figures now, the interest has now come, people willingly come to our office now, and people are filing their returns. I hope that by the end of this year we will make big strides”.

Ghana Beyond Aid

The Assistant Commissioner said taxation was the lifeblood of every economy in the world, and all developed countries relied on taxes to achieve the needed development for the citizenry.

Mr Sakyi Duodo stressed that the transformation of the country’s natural resources which will translate in the creation of jobs to the teeming unemployed youth cannot be achieved if the citizenry fail to pay their taxes to the Government.

He also indicated that aid across the world was dwindling hence there was an urgent need to achieve the Ghana Beyond Aid vision which will not materialise without the payment of taxes.

He, therefore, called on the media to sensitise the public on the relevance of paying taxes and the benefits they can derive from it.

Ashanti Region Chairperson of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Kingsley Hope, urged media practitioners to support state institutions like the GRA to deliver on their mandate.

Appeal to media

Officials appealed to media practitioners to use their platforms to urge the general public to voluntarily pay their taxes.

Officials are worried about the attitude exhibited by some members of the public who always want to be coerced before fulfilling their tax obligations.

According to them, the input from the media will help them double their tax collection efforts.

Mr Sakyi Duodo made the call at an engagement with journalists in the Ashanti Region in Kumasi.