THE Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffour, has charged the revenue agencies to improve on revenue mobilisation to generate the much-needed resources for national development, in view of the global credit crunch which has affected inflows from the country’s development partners.
He explained that the quest to improve economic development had greatly been affected by the global economic crisis which had significantly reduced the revenue available for development, as well as the ability of the country to access funds from the development partners.
He said that situation had made it imperative for the revenue agencies to revisit the need to improve and diversify domestic revenue generation strategies.
Dr Duffour, who made the call at the opening of a conference for VAT Administrators in Africa (VADA) in Accra last Friday, said the government had decided to establish an integrated tax administration to be managed by a single revenue authority.
He noted that streamlining tax mobilisation efforts would result in effectiveness in generating more revenue for developmental efforts
Dr Duffour stressed that the country should seek to grow economically and become self-sufficient in order to provide for the growing population, saying that was the challenge most countries would like to overcome.
The Minister of Finance said the integration of the various tax agencies to be administered by a single revenue administration was a policy direction which had been tested and proved to be very successful.
He, therefore, called on the staff of the revenue agencies to position themselves to take up the challenge of becoming multi-skilled in tax collection
He said the integration in tax agencies in countries such as Kenya and Rwanda had proved to be beneficial, both to the public and the revenue agencies as a whole.
He said Ghana was, therefore, advancing from an inferior method of administering taxes to a superior phase where meagre resources could be optimised.
He said through integration, the country could be in a position to offer better developmental prospects which called for specialisation in the respective fields of tax administration
Dr Duffour said when those challenges were accomplished, tax administration in the country would become dynamic.
The Commissioner of VAT Services, Mr Anthony Minlah, said VADA was established with the aim of bringing together commissioners and administrators of VAT in Africa and also serve as a platform for generating ideas by brain-storming on operations of the tax.
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