Our goal is to enhance revenue mobilisation, cut the cost of running gov’t – Finance Minister

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has announced that government will be looking to aggressively mobilise revenue in 2023.

The Minister announced this on Thursday, November 24, when he presented the 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government to Parliament.

According to him, a decision has been taken to not only significantly enhance revenue mobilisation but to also massively cut down the cost of running government.

“Our goal now is to significantly enhance revenues, significantly cut down the cost of running the government, significantly enhance local production, invest more to protect the poor and vulnerable, provide access to good roads, technology, education, and health to every Ghanaian,” Ken Ofori-Atta said during his presentation of the 2023 Budget Statement.

The Minister also disclosed that the budget is anchored on a seven-point agenda aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and accelerating our economic transformation.

Among the seven-point agenda which includes aggressive mobilisation of domestic revenue, Ken Ofori-Atta said it is why the government is proposing an increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) by 2.5%.

“To aggressively mobilise domestic revenue we will among others increase VAT rate by 2.5% to directly support our roads and digitization agenda,” Ken Ofori-Atta told Parliament today.

Currently, the standard VAT rate is 12.5%, except for supplies of a wholesaler or retailer of goods, which are taxed at a total flat rate of 3%.