The government is attempting to fill the revenue gap created by abolishing value-added tax on electricity by taxing the overseas income of Ghanaian residents.
Earlier this year, the government introduced a value-added tax on electricity, but was forced to abandon the plan after public backlash.
This resulted in an income gap of approximately GHc1.8 billion.
The government had planned to introduce a value-added tax on electricity as part of the IMF agreement’s revenue measures, but the plan was abandoned due to public resistance, resulting in a revenue shortfall.
The government believes that ensuring tax compliance on foreign income will reduce revenue disparities.
Ghana’s agreement with the IMF includes certain expenditure rationalization and revenue measures to ensure the fiscal health of the economy.
To address this shortfall, the government says it will ensure tax compliance on foreign income of Ghanaians residing in Ghana for more than 183 days.
“The alternative is a compliance measure on foreign income for Ghanaian residents, not Ghanaians abroad. We want to make that clear. This is not a measure. This is not included in the policy. However, its implementation has not been optimized. We are pleased to announce that we have put in place strong and structural measures to ensure that this generates over GHS 1.8 billion in revenue.” Commissioner Julie Esiam said.
The GRA chief also encouraged taxpayers to take advantage of the window set up to get interest on their accounts waived.
She added: “The rollout has begun as teams have mobilized to draft letters to be sent to individual account holders. So by May 2nd, those letters will have been sent out. It’s possible. If an individual comes forward within three months and says this is the amount in this account, the interest on the account will be waived, and that is the voluntary disclosure aspect of this measure.”
Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Aminu Adamu, has hoped that Ghanaians will be patient with the government as new policies are introduced to revive the economy.