The plan by the Ministry of Finance and the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority and the Economic Management Team to initiate work on a mobile application for the filing of taxes is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Thursday.
The Daily Guide reports that the Ministry of Finance and the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority, working with the Economic Management Team, have initiated work on a mobile application for the filing of taxes, the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has revealed.
This is part of measures being made to make tax compliance and enforcement easier, and increase the contribution of domestic revenue to the nation’s GDP.
“I am happy to announce that the mobile application for the simplified filing of taxes should be ready by end of October this year. The idea is to have a mobile app where an individual or enterprise will have to input just a few pieces of information and tax due will be automatically calculated for you and you can pay on your phone and receive a receipt immediately,” he said.
Dr. Bawumia disclosed in Accra on Wednesday, August 25, 2021, at the launch of the Revenue Assurance and Compliance Enforcement (RACE) Initiative, designed to increase domestic revenue mobilization to address the economic challenges arising from the Covid 19 pandemic and make Ghana more fiscally independent.
A recent study by the World Bank (November 2020) has shed more light on the startling gap between what is due to the public purse and what is collected, with the total corporate tax gap equivalent to between 9.4 percent and 12.6 percent of GDP (approximately between Gh¢35.7billion – Gh¢47.88billion); VAT compliance gap of 39.3 percent of total VAT revenue; Import duty tax gap of 32.5 percent of tax revenue; and potential tax revenues from sole proprietors, who usually operate in the informal sector, amounting to 12.6 percent of GDP.
The newspaper says that the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Herbert Krapa, has urged Ghanaians to let their admiration and enthusiasm for local art reflect in the purchase of the commodities that have mostly been patronised by expatriates.
He talked of the need for the re-orientation of the Ghanaian mindset to understand that investing in art was a way of investing in the Ghanaian heritage as well as the economy.
“We like it, we admire it, we speak proudly about it to others, but the final purchase to complete the equation is not with the same enthusiasm,” he said.
Speaking at the opening of the second edition of the Sound Out Premium Art Exhibition on Saturday, August 21, 2021, he said that platforms such as exhibitions were crucial to giving prominence and exposure to both artists and consumers as it increases awareness and leads to sharing of market information.
The seven days event, which featured the work of 32 Ghanaian artists, was organised by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) in line with the third pillar of the National Export Development Strategy (NEDS), which seeks to build capacity for industrial export development and marketing.
The Chief Executive Officer of GEPA, Dr. Afua Asabea Asare, indicated that GEPA seeks to build the platform to a level where “artists on the continent will be clamouring to showcase their pieces at this annual festival.”
This, she said, is to be achieved through boosting production capacity and building a business environment that supports export.
The Graphic reports that it is estimated that electricity generation from nuclear power will cost between five and eight cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), a pre-feasibility study has established.
The Director of the Nuclear Power Institute (NPI) of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), Dr. Seth Kofi Debrah, who disclosed this, said current generation sources provided between 16 and 18 cents per kWh.
Speaking on Ghana’s nuclear power programme at the fourth Ghana Industrial Summit and Exhibition organised by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) in Accra, Dr. Debrah explained that nuclear power was an economic electricity-generation source because of its low operating cost, significantly the relatively stable fuel regime it offered.
He said nuclear power held the key to reducing overall electricity tariffs in the country and ensuring reliable power supply, which would give Ghanaian businesses the impetus to be very competitive.
“Other countries spend less than 20 per cent on electricity to produce goods and services, whereas Ghanaian industries spend close to 40 per cent on electricity. This makes Ghanaian goods and services expensive,” he lamented.
Dr. Debrah also indicated that other countries had used nuclear technology to push their industrialisation agenda and developed.
He insisted that the time had come to focus on and chart the path towards nuclear power, as it had a lot of potential and a competitive edge.
The newspaper says that the Chief of Staff, Mrs Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, has said the government will deepen the partnership with the private sector to help scale up businesses in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) space.
She said such a partnership would support the growth of the economy in the post-COVID-19 era.
“Without swift action from the government and the international community to get key industrial sectors back on track, a protected downturn may have a knock-on effect on the country’s socio-economic development,” Mrs Osei-Opare said at the Chamber SME Business Forum in Accra yesterday.
The event, which was on theme: “Redefining business success: The case of SMEs in Ghana”, was aimed at influencing government policies in favour of businesses in the SMEs space.
Participants included players in the private sector, SMEs, policymakers and some government officials, and they deliberated on how to support SMEs to be global giants.
Mrs Osei-Opare described the theme for the event as appropriate and timely, considering the current socio-economic landscape and the health ecosystem in the country.
She expressed the hope that participants would come up with more sustainable recommendations that SMEs required to succeed after the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying they had the potential to rise beyond the current global happenings.
GIK/APA