The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Dame has said that legal practitioners are not to blame entirely for evading taxes.

Delivering a speech at the Annual General Conference of the Ghana Bar Association in Bolgatanga, Mr Dame attributed the real cause of the occurrence, to the gaps in the revenue collection system.

This year’s Conference is on the theme, ‘Ensuring an increase in revenue mobilisation through taxation for the purpose of accelerated national development: The role of the lawyer’.

In Mr Dame's view, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is “majorly responsible” for the evasion of taxes by some lawyers and qualified taxpayers in other professions.

“The GRA ought to device the appropriate mechanism for ensuring that the tax net is broadened to its elastic limit in order to bring within it, all potential taxpayers including all practising lawyers,” he advised on Monday.

While calling for the overhaul of the GRA, the Attorney General underscored the importance of taxes for the country.

According to him, taxes constitute the three major pillars of revenue mobilization in the country, thus encouraged his colleagues to fulfil their obligations as citizens.

He further stressed that it is disloyal for citizens and people working in Ghana, to illegally dodge tax liabilities when they ought to be paying.

“Unfriendly as the topic of taxation may be, it is very central to national development. The payment of tax is the most basic obligation of the citizen, so it is written in the Good Book, the Holy Bible, that Jesus Christ did not oppose the payment of taxes. In fact, Jesus paid taxes and entreated us to do same," he said.

The GBA conference, which was held in Bolgatanga in the Upper East region, is a forum to review activities of the Bar for the past three years and plan for the next three years.