2020 Budget: Government of Ghana not introducing new taxes, according to Finance Minister, here’s why

According to him, the government will, instead, boost revenue collection to enable it to meet revenue targets.

Mr Ofori-Atta said this while presenting the country’s 2020 budget statement on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, November 13, 2019.

He noted that the government will lend the necessary support to the Ghana Revenue Authority to boost revenue generation.

The Finance Minister further indicated that government will work with the existing tax systems to meet its revenue targets, contrary to the view of the opposition that the 2020 budget was going to contain a myriad of new taxes.

“We will take radical policy and institutional reforms towards raising our tax-to-GDP ratio over the medium term from under 13 percent currently to around 20 percent. The focus will be on efficiency and base-broadening rather than imposing new taxes on our people and businesses,” he said.

Adding that “This way, we can raise our domestic contribution to our ambitious transformation agenda, in line with the Ghana Beyond Aid vision. Mr Speaker as you can see, we have not imposed any new taxes”.

The government has come under attack recently for the introduction of new taxes and increasing other ones including the controversial Communication Service Tax and the Petroleum tax.