Ghanaians Urged To Honour Their Tax Obligations To Sustain Free SHS

The Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Mr. Emmanuel Kofi Nti has urged Ghanaians to honour their tax obligations regularly to enable the Government to generate enough revenue to sustain the free SHS policy.

Mr Nti expressed dismay about the way many Ghanaians viewed the activities of revenue collection agencies as nuisance and pointed out that this was rather unfortunate. He said the people should know that the most basic conditions upon which a modern state survives was by the payment and collection of taxes.

Speaking at a tax forum held in Kumasi on Wednesday, 22 November 2017 as part of the GRA’s national tax campaign which was recently launched with the theme: "#OURTAXESOURFUTURE", Mr. Kofi Nti stated that, most Ghanaians apparently do not know the essence of paying taxes.

He lamented that many people evaded tax payment through several means such as under-invoicing among others and called for a change of attitude among Ghanaians to help the country to develop fast and also consolidate Free SHS policy.

‘’It is an obligation of every eligible citizen to pay tax for national development and it is a punishable offence to under-declare tax returns’’ he said.

According to Mr Nti, the free Senior High School policy being implemented by President Akufo Addo led NPP government aimed at building a better future for the Ghanaian people particularly, the upcoming generation and therefore appealed to all and sundry to contribute their quota to enable government generate more revenue to sustain the policy

He, therefore, appealed to all Ghanaians to help the Authority to mobilise enough revenue so that government can meet its part of the social contract through the provision of the much-needed infrastructure and other public goods as well as the maintenance of law and order as a prerequisite to carry on their business activities in peace.

He expressed worry over Ashanti Region's low tax revenue contribution to the nation's total tax revenue collection.

"One would have expected that as the region with the second-highest local government economy outside the Greater Accra region, the contribution to tax revenue would follow suit. However, available statistics show that the region's contribution to tax revenue is below four per cent," he said.

For her part, the Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Hon. Elizabeth Agyemeng urged the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to institute measures to deal with illegal tax collectors.