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Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s Finance Minister
The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has said the government as part of efforts to improve its revenue mobilisation has introduced innovative measures to collect property taxes in the country.
Presenting the 2022 budget statement and economic policy on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, the Minister said government is looking to assisting the Metropolitan Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MDAs) to implement a common platform for property rate administration to enable them effectively collect property rates in the country.
He said: “Mr. Speaker, property rates have the potential to increase revenue mobilization for MDAs and release resources for provision of basic infrastructure as well as the needs of our localities. Property rate assessment and collection pose a challenge to most MMDAs and are fraught with inefficiencies.
“Government, through the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) will from January 2022, assist the MMDAs to implement a common platform for property rate administration to enhance property rate collections and its accountability. To ensure cost recovery by government in providing the infrastructure for the collection of the Rate, a sharing ratio will be agreed with the Assemblies,” he added.
With dwindling revenue streams attributable to the slowdown in business activities occasioned by the Coronavirus pandemic, Ghana is lagging behind most of its peers within the West African sub-region as far as the tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio is concerned.
While Ghana is doing below 15 percent, countries in the sub-region like Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria are hovering around an average of 18 percent, prompting government to employ innovative ways of broadening its tax net.
This the Minister explained that while the hardship Ghanaians have been experiencing due to coronavirus pandemic is not lost on government, it is also necessary that government improves its revenue mobilization in an economy put under extreme distress by the pandemic.
