Business News of Saturday, 23 November 2019

Source: Eye on Port

Reduction in taxes has saved Ghanaian taxpayers GHC4.1 billion - Finance minister

Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance

The Finance Minister of the country, Ken Ofori-Atta has indicated that the government has moved the economic policy of the country away from one focused on taxation to one focused on production and outlined directives towards such objective.

According to the Finance Minister, the reduction and abolition of taxes including the 50% reduction in import duty has saved taxpayers a total of GHC4.1 billion over the last three years.

He assured that measures would be undertaken to boost domestic revenue and the Ghana Revenue Authority would play an instrumental role in this objective.

“Government shall continue to provide the necessary support to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) in their ongoing reforms for 2020 and the medium term to optimize revenue collection.”

The Minister of Finance also revealed that his outfit is leveraging technology to improve transparency and accountability in administrative systems as well as bring ease to doing business in the country.

“We have set a digitization agenda to improve the efficiency of many government agencies. These are initiatives with potential big long-term gains by leveraging technology to improve transparency,” he revealed.

Ken Ofori Atta also said efforts being undertaken to position Ghana’s ports as a regional logistics hub coupled with major road networks in the country is a demonstration of government’s long-term commitment to infrastructure development.