Gov’t urged to formulate new tax compliance rules for increased revenue

A tax expert and Senior Associate at Ali-Nakyea & Associates, William Kofi Owusu Demitia, has urged the government to come up with new compliance rules for its tax regime.

The move, he believes, will help the government raise the needed revenue to undertake its development projects.

His call comes at a time that government is struggling to meet its revenue targets most of which is derived from taxes and levies.

Mr Owusu Demitia told Joy Business ahead of the Mid-Year Budget Review and Supplementary Budget presentation – scheduled for Monday – that change is needed to the current tax adherence rules which are not working.

“The facts tell us that the government has not met its revenue targets for the first quarter. We don’t have the full data for the second quarter but it appears that those targets may have been missed as well.

“What it simply tells us is that mechanisms we put in place to raise the needed revenue are not working as efficiently as we thought we would,” he said.

He said the proposed new tax compliance rules would cure the constant shortfall in tax revenue targets.