Dr Lord Mensah, an economist and a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana Business School has called on the government “to leverage the digital investments it has made in the past three years to rope in more Ghanaians into the tax net instead of introducing new taxes.”

He notes that given the structure of the Ghanaian economy now, any attempt by the government to introduce taxes or increase current taxes “would not be best as companies, businesses, and individuals are recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Dr Lord Mensah was speaking ahead of the presentation of today’s budget which will cover government spending for the first quarter of 2021.

“We are gradually creeping out of Covid 19 and so I do not think it will be prudent for government”

Dr Mensah also indicated that the government has been hard-pressed for money after revising downwards its 2020 total revenue in grants target by 20 percent from 67 billion cedis to 53.6 billion cedis for the full year.

He, therefore, added that he is not expecting the government to reduce taxes in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The expected presentation known as the expenditure in advance of appropriation is a standard practice rolled out in election years to prevent transitional challenges in the smooth running of government for the first three months in the year after elections.