Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has promised to implement new policies that would help eliminate some of the taxes introduced recently to generate more revenue.

Some of these new policies the Vice President proposed, include tax digitalisation, making Ghana a cashless society, cuts in government expenditure and implementing a new tax regime.

Addressing the nation, the NPP flagbearer said that the new tax regime he wants to implement, which includes a reform of the Ghana Revenue Authority, will improve the tax Ghana’s tax regime, broaden the tax base and increase tax revenue.

“Estimates suggest revenues amounting to 13% of GDP (or $24 billion in 2023) are not collected because people are outside the tax net. Even collecting half of or a quarter of this annually will be a game changer for public finances.”

“To do this, we need to inculcate and enforce a culture of people filing their tax returns. Incentives must be provided to encourage people to file their tax returns even if they will pay zero taxes. We need a fresh start,” he noted.

To push this goal, Dr Bawumia said that his administration will introduce a very simple, citizen and business friendly flat tax for individuals and SMEs with appropriate exemption thresholds set to protect the poor.

“With cuts in government expenditure, the private sector undertaking expenditure that would normally be done by government and the new tax regime that will enhance compliance, broaden the tax base, and increase tax revenue, the situation we are going to face in 2025 is going to be very 48 different from the situation we faced in 2020 and 2022.”

“With the policy measures implemented thus far, we have outperformed the IMF fiscal deficit target of 5% of GDP by attaining a fiscal deficit of 4.2% in 2023. The new policies that I am proposing to implement in 2025 will give us the fiscal space to eliminate some taxes such as the VAT on electricity, the emissions tax and the betting tax without compromising our deficit target.”