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The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), has launched a scathing attack on the government for what it describes as its lukewarm approach to dealing with public officials who have embezzled millions of dollars of state funds.

“We can’t be asked to pay more taxes only for the government to sit and watch corrupt individuals empty the state coffers at our expense,” the President of GUTA, Nana Barimah Ofori Ameyaw, said at the launch of a national tax campaign.
 
He prevailed on the government to stop paying lip service to the fight against corruption and deal ruthlessly with those found culpable of embezzling state funds.

He said: “Why should we sit down for a few to dissipate the state coffers while we look on and then turn around to push the poor to pay taxes.”

Nana Ameyaw said: “The best way to get the public to voluntarily honour their tax obligations is to assure them that when they pay, the government will not allow only a few to take it while the majority suffer.”

No arrest

Ten months into the new administration, the government is yet to prosecute officials mentioned to have embezzled state funds.

Many a time, the government is quick to point out officials who are alleged to have embezzled state funds but falls short of prosecuting those involved let alone begin processes according to the law to retrieve what has been stolen.

Presently at the Public Accounts Committee sittings, startling revelations are made about public officials who have either embezzled, mismanaged or misappropriated state funds running into several billion of Ghana cedis.

It is, however, unfortunate that after the summons, the officials are left off the hook to enjoy their stolen booty while the ordinary taxpayer is pressured to pay more in taxes to enable the state to discharge its obligations to the people.


While governments - past and present - sit aloof to allow public officials to steal, they go arms in hand to beg for foreign aid when the monies stolen are far more than what they ask for.

Against this background, Nana Ameyaw asked the government to take swift action to end the corruption canker by punishing those involved to serve as a deterrent to others.

Port payments

The GUTA President also bemoaned what he described as the numerous charges by different state agencies at the country’s ports.

According to him, these agencies, under the guise of raising internally generated funds (IDFs) impose different charges on imported goods much to the frustration of importers.

“These numerous payments affect us and at the end of the day disables us from honouring our tax obligations as expected,” he said.

Commends GRA

Nana Ameyaw commended the GRA for the bold initiative taken and expressed the hope that the people would, in spite of the government’s inaction to deal with corrupt officials, honour their civic responsibilities to the state.

He asked the authority to continue to drum home the importance of paying taxes to the people to get their buy-in.

He called on the government to streamline port processes to ensure that the importers were not subjected to too many charges only to clear their goods.

Tax campaign

The GRA launched the comprehensive national tax campaign to encourage more Ghanaians to honour their tax obligations to enable the government to realise its domestic revenue targets, increase social intervention policies and accelerate development projects across the country.

The aggressive campaign, which will include stakeholder engagements, dawn broadcasts, social media activities, consistent media announcements, community outreach programmes, compliance and enforcement activities, among other things, is also to help increase the number of people paying taxes from about 16 per cent to be at par with the sub-regional average, 20 per cent.

In his quest to motivate the general public to play a more pivotal role in ensuring the success of the campaign, the acting Commissioner General of the GRA, Mr Kofi Nti, who was speaking at the launch of the campaign in Accra yesterday, asked members of the general public to bring to the notice of the GRA, business activities within their vicinities to enable the authority to bring them into the tax net for a reward in the form of a percentage of the tax collected from the operators. He gave the firm assurance that the GRA “will keep the identities of such patriotic citizens confidential”.

In painting a gloomy picture about the number of people in the tax bracket, he said: “Even though many Ghanaians are engaged in income earning activities, especially in the informal sector, only about 1.2 million people are registered for tax purposes.”

“Out of the number, about one million are in the formal sector, leaving only about 200,000 in the formal sector,” he said, adding that “the result of this situation is that for a long time, the contribution of the informal sector to total tax revenue has remained below five per cent although the economy is dominated by the informal sector players”.