Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s proposed tax amnesty has University of Cape Coast (UCC) Economics Professor John Gatsi skeptical. According to him, this proposal won’t improve tax payments or deal with the problems related to them.
If elected president, Dr. Bawumia, the leader of the New Patriotic Party, has pledged to implement a flat tax system that is easy on businesses and citizens alike. He presented his ideas for a new tax system at the University of Professional Studies in Accra.
This would entail a flat tax for individuals and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which account for 98% of all businesses in Ghana, based on a percentage of income.
In addition to promising a streamlined corporate tax and VAT regime, the proposed system incorporates suitable exemption thresholds to safeguard the impoverished. Professor Gatsi contends that this action, however, does not deal with the main issue of tax collection in the nation.
He says the primary problem is that people don’t want to pay taxes voluntarily because they don’t see any immediate returns. During an interview with Eyewitness News’s Umaru Sanda Amadu, Professor Gatsi recommended that the nation concentrate on improving public services.
This, in his opinion, would encourage people to pay their taxes. “Giving everyone tax amnesty, for which everyone should start over, won’t make a difference because that isn’t the primary issue with tax collection in the nation.”
The primary issue is that, even if they choose to voluntarily declare their intention to pay taxes, people are not committed to doing so because it is out of proportion to the public infrastructure that is provided for them. Public transportation isn’t the greatest. Since most Ghanaians don’t have the best access to public services, they don’t see the point in paying taxes. Those are the matters that require attention, he declared.
