Twenty (20) out of the twenty (24) banks licensed in Ghana by Bank of Ghana in 2019, paid a total direct tax of GH¢1.6 billion, which also include the five per cent national fiscal stabilization levy to Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the agency mandated by law to assess collect and account for tax revenue on behalf of government.

This GH¢1.6 billion represents a growth of twenty-four per cent (24%) from the 2018 direct tax of GH¢1.3 billion paid to the same agency.

These tax figures were stated in the published audited financial report of the banks.

The other four banks namely First Atlantic Bank Limited, GHL Bank Limited, National Investment Bank Limited, OmniBSIC Bank Ghana Limited, had not published their 2019 audited reports therefore were excluded from the analysis.

In 2019, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) collected total tax revenue of GH¢43.9 billion as compared to GH¢37.7 billion collected in 2018 representing an increase or growth of 16.6 per cent.

Domestic tax, which includes taxes such as corporate tax and national stabilization levy, which were the taxes these 20 banks paid, contributed GH¢31.9 billion and GH¢24.5 billion respectively in 2019 and 2018, to the total tax revenue collected, representing a growth of 30.4 per cent.

The GH¢1.6 billion paid in 2019 by these 20 banks represent 3.7 per cent of the total tax revenue collected in 2019 by Ghana Revenue Authority and 4.3 per cent of the total domestic tax revenue collected in the same year, while the GH¢1.3 billion paid in 2018 by these same 20 banks represent 4.1 and 5.3 per cent of the total tax revenue, and the total domestic tax revenue respectively.

The 24 per cent increase in the tax paid by these 20 banks in 2019 was as a result of the over 40 percent increase in their profit which will be discussed in another article written by the same author.

Five out of the twenty banks in both 2018 and 2019 contributed 56 per cent of the total GH¢1.3 billion and GH¢1.6 billion tax paid to GRA respectively with (Standard Chartered bank, Absa bank, Ecobank, Stanbic bank and GCB bank) taking the top five spot in 2018, while in 2019, (Ecobank, Absa bank, GCB bank, Zenith bank and Standard Chartered bank make up the top five).