Dr. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, the Minister of Finance, has charged the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to increase revenue mobilisation to overturn the country’s recurrent debt curse.
Doing so, he said, required implementing innovative measures to stimulate compliance for more domestic revenue, as the country was locked out of the international capital market.
He made this call when he paid a working visit to the Authority on Thursday, January 23, 2025.
Dr. Ato Forson was accompanied by Mr. Fiifi Fiavi Kwetey, General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), Ms. Eva Esselba Mends, Chief Director, Ministry of Finance, and other directors of the ministry.
“We don’t have access to the Eurobond market; we don’t have access to even commercial bank loans, [and] we don’t have access to the domestic bond market. The only access we have is the T-bill or multilateral loans. So, revenue is so critical; it means that we have to look more within domestic resource mobilisation, more than going out there to borrow,” the minister said.
“You have exceeded your target for the year 2024. But this year, you have to do more. You have to exceed achieving your target in such a way that we will do less borrowing because the space is not there,” he added.
He urged the Authority to explore innovative ways to raise an additional 0.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as tax revenue in 2025 by ensuring that the Customs Division of GRA increased their revenue mobilisation.
The minister also called on the management of GRA to cooperate with the acting commissioner-general of GRA, Mr. Anthony Kwasi Sarpong, to achieve the government’s bigger transformation agenda for the country.
Fiifi Fiavi Kwetey, a former Deputy Minister of Finance, equally urged GRA to double their revenue mobilisation efforts.
He indicated that revenue was the “lifeline” of every country, and for Ghana, it had become extremely important to shore up domestic revenue to meet the government’s development obligations to citizens.
He called for coordination among all revenue mobilisation agencies, pledging that the government would provide the necessary support for the Authority to achieve its goals.
Mr. Kwasi Sarpong said the task for the authority was challenging but would use a people-centred approach to ensure that they worked as a team to accomplish their revenue mobilisation targets.
“I pledge to work with every one of you in terms of the GRA team to make sure that we are creating a culture where we work as a team, where we work to focus on our priorities, looking at the progress, growth, and welfare of the people,” he said.
The Acting Commissioner-General stated that by working as a team, GRA would raise the needed revenue for all Ghanaians to benefit from it and build a legacy for many generations.
Source: GNA
