By Comfort Sweety Hayford

Copyright atlfmnews

Tax consultant Francis Timore-Boye has raised doubts about the government’s ability to meet its revenue target for the year, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) begins its fifth review of Ghana’s economic program.

Speaking to Joy Business, Mr. Timore-Boye described the task ahead as difficult, stating that “My considered view is that the revenue target, even though possible, could be very challenging. At mid-year, we were told that revenue performance was about 44.5% of the annual target, and that looked like a positive sign. But customs, which is one of our major revenue handles, was underperforming by close to 1.6 billion cedis. That alone pulls everything down.”

He further pointed to Ghana’s longstanding structural weakness in revenue mobilization, explaining that “We have a problem with what we call structural taxing capacity, which is measured by our tax-to-GDP ratio. Over the years, we have been unable to collect much from the GDP we produce. That’s a slack in the system, and you can’t change that overnight.”

Mr. Timore-Boye also flagged the impact of tax evasion and smuggling, emphasizing “We’ve seen a number of evasions, especially in the gold sector. The revenue government is supposed to get from there is being lost, and that worsens the challenge.”

On new tax measures rolled out midway through the year, he was less optimistic. “From July to date, their total contribution to the tax pool will be very limited because they were not rolled out early enough,” he cautioned.

Although the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) exceeded its 2024 target by 5.2%, Mr. Timore-Boye warned that the government may still find itself walking a narrow path in 2025.

“I think success is possible, but it’s going to be very tough. If government manages to achieve the target, it will be by a very slim margin,” he concluded.

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