The African Tax department of the IMF is today expected to begin engaging the Ghana Statistical service over concerns with the country's GDP figures.

This is an advance meeting ahead of the main visit by the IMF from November 6 to finalize discussions on Ghana's program.

According to some  persons close to the IMF team  negotiating with Ghana, they still have some concerns with the size of  Ghana's economy in relation to the amount of taxes government is able mobilize for its expenditure. 

The Fund argues that the numbers still do not match up with what the statistical service is putting out, hence the need for this meeting between the tax department, and the Ghana statistical service.  

For instance, the statistical service approximate that the country grew by 7.6 percent, but in monetary terms, Ghana is valued at 90 billion Ghana cedis, however the country was able to collect just about a quarter of this in terms of taxes.

But a source close to the statistical service tells Joy Business this has come about because of the poor performance of the manufacturing sector.

On GDP numbers, the source argues that, there is always a huge leap in when they get the final figures for the GDP because some things were not captured initially.

But the IMF has maintained that these meetings are critical because any program that they would recommend for Ghana should be based on accurate, GDP figures to enable the fund get a better picture when it comes to Ghana’s debt and taxes in relation to the size of the economy.

Posted by IE