Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Abena Osei-Asare, says the government remains committed to enhancing tax compliance and reducing inefficiencies in the country’s tax system.

She noted that the government’s focus will be on improving the collection of Value Added tax (VAT) and excise duties, among other revenue measures.

The Minister explained that the move by the government would be in line with the medium-term revenue strategy outlined by the Finance Ministry.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the 12th Annual International Tax Conference organised by the Chartered Institute of Taxation, she said: “We have a medium-term revenue strategy and the medium-term revenue strategy is on our website so clearly you can see where the government is charting. The most important thing is this…how do we raise the needed revenue? Wherever it is going to come from, how do we raise the needed revenue? That should be the main agenda and if we are going to improve the VAT collection to raise more revenue, we will do that."

“If we are going to improve the excise duty collections to make us raise more revenue, we will do that without necessarily having to increase those taxes. But we are going more on compliance and reducing inefficiencies because we believe there is so much to be done and once it is done without necessarily increasing taxes, we can rake in more revenue,” she said.