The Chartered Institute of Taxation and other tax experts in the country have been advised to help bring their expertise to bear for sustainable voluntary tax compliance among Ghanaian taxpayers.
The Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, who made the call explained that there was the need for all Ghanaians and other sector players in the country to support the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the State to achieve improved and sustainable revenue mobilization to support the nation’s collective socio-economic development.
Dr Adutwum made the call in an address read for him by Dr Eric Nkansah, Director in charge of Tertiary Education at the 2022 Chartered Institute of Taxation Ghana graduation, orientation and induction ceremony in Accra on Saturday.
The event saw 81 graduating after completing the Institute’s qualifying examinations in February 2022 while 73 newly qualified chartered tax practitioners who have already completed the mandatory post-qualifying working experience were inducted into membership of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.
He said, “This government has intensified efforts to transform the face of education right from the basic level through to tertiary, and in the last five years, the government has vigorously implemented bold reforms and policies aimed at improving education standards and widening skills acquisition in Ghana”.
The Education Minister stated that the collaboration and support from various stakeholders including the Chartered Institute of Taxation to date played a crucial role in human capital development and to a large extent provided technical assistance on various policy issues and reforms within the taxation sector and had quickened achievements in the sector.
“With the world transitioning to a digital economy, and with digitalization at the forefront of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo-led government’s transformation agenda, we need to intensify partnerships to step up efforts in offering digital skills training and capacity building for human talent across various sectors of the Ghanaian economy”. He said.
The Board Chairman of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Dr Anthony Oteng Gyasi, commended the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, for his frantic effort toward digitalizing the nation’s economy.
He said the GRA has embarked on several policy initiatives to improve its processes and procedures to facilitate revenue mobilization.
The Board Chairman mentioned the introduction of the innovative Cashless policy which ensures that taxpayers pay taxes either through the banks or online as one of such initiatives which would not only enable convenience for taxpayers but also affect efficiencies at the Authority.
The President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation Ghana, Mr George Ohene Kwatia, said “we take great pride in developing impactful professionals who care and are passionate about the impact they make in society wherever they are located”.
He added that their members were trained to be versatile to be able to aptly function primarily within a digitised economy that is considered by many as sophisticated environments.
Mr Ohene Kwatia indicated that the digitization of economies across the globe required laws and regulations to enhance effective tax administration and called for tax reforms to match the digitized economies.
