The Society for Women in Taxation (SWIT), in collaboration with the Madina Tax Service Centre of the Ghana Revenue Authority, on Thursday, November 9, 2023, educated traders in Madina Market on the relevance of taxes.
The president of SWIT, Esi Duma Sam, bemoaned the government’s inability to prosecute its development agenda due to the low level of taxes generated, mostly from the formal sector.
She observed that SWIT has prioritised educating the informal sector because there is a need for players in the sector to understand how taxes work in order for them to comply.
“As a women group, we know the informal sector is a very large part of the economy, and a lot of women play a very significant role, and we believe that we need to bring tax education down to them. When we bring the education down to them and they understand it, in the future, complying with tax issues will become very easy for them.”
According to Madam Sam, this is the first time their organisation has embarked on this exercise, hinting that more such education will be rolled out in the coming months.
“Until the last trader in the market understands the significance of paying taxes, we aren’t stopping with the education. The next time, we will consider mounting a stage just right at the entrance of the market, which is Zongo, where everyone who passes into the market will be educated on the need to pay tax,” she added.
Team members of SWIT and the GRA took turns explaining to the traders in various local languages the different forms of taxes, including VAT, income tax, and PAYE, how they can file their taxes, and the contribution of taxes to development.
The team also took journalists around and engaged in one-on-one discussions with individual traders on tax matters.
Although some of the traders complained of seeing little development and sometimes misuse of their taxes, the SWIT and GRA teams asked them to consider tax payment as a civic responsibility that has collective benefits for society.
