The National Organiser of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye, also known as Nana B, has chastised the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for stationing officers in shops, restaurants, and other businesses to record product sales for tax purposes.
He contended that the strategy would have been justified only if it had targeted businesses that had been found to be evading or under-declaring their taxes.
In a statement, the NPP National Organiser stated that the “common practise of stationing revenue officers at businesses is counterproductive, oppressive, repressive, and suppressive.”
“We are not in normal times; businesses and individuals are bearing the brunt of the twin global crises and their concomitant economic agony, and the least that can be expected from GRA is to police traders against whom no tax evasion findings have been made.”
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“In this day and age, GRA should adopt welcoming and pleasant revenue collection strategies that ensure revenue assurance.” This strategy is flawed and ineffective because Revenue Officers stationed at these shops and businesses can be bribed to assist owners in evading or under-declaring their taxes. Instead, the GRA should strive to reduce human contact in revenue collection and instead use technological solutions to collect taxes from businesses,” he added.
GRA’s Public Relations unit, in his opinion, is extinct.
“Paying taxes is not a pleasant thing to do, and a responsive public relations approach must be used to educate the tax-paying population about their programmes and activities.”
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