Leading fiscal policy and tax experts have urged the government to focus on enforcing existing tax laws through the deployment of digital technologies, rather than introducing new taxes that could impose additional burdens on already struggling businesses and individuals.
This consensus emerged at a recent National Dialogue on Tax Revenue Mobilisation organised by the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), where panellists called for a more rigorous application of current laws, supported by automation, real-time surveillance, and cross-agency data integration.
Elsie Appau, Deputy Commissioner at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), underscored the institution’s commitment to deepening automation and extending its digital reach.
“The gap is not necessarily in the laws, but in how well we enforce them. Digitalisation allows us to reduce discretion and ensure compliance in ways manual systems cannot,” she said.
Former Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam reinforced this stance, noting that Ghana’s tax administration has suffered from fragmented systems and excessive human intervention, allowing leakages to persist.
“Our challenge is not the absence of laws or software. The Ghana Revenue Authority currently operates over 20 different IT platforms, but they don’t talk to each other. This fragmentation undermines our revenue mobilisation efforts,” Dr. Adam said.
He emphasized the broader implications of inefficiencies in tax collection.
“Ghana’s problem is not just low taxes; it is low tax elasticity. We must focus on enforcing what already exists through a fully digitised, traceless tax system.”
Dr. Adam cited the rollout of innovations such as the electronic card and e-bank systems during his tenure, which was designed to collect real-time institutional tax data — a turning point in data-based enforcement.
Professor Isaac Boadi, Dean of the Faculty of Accounting and Finance at UPSA, quantified the cost of inefficiency. Ghana, he said, loses an estimated US$9.02 billion annually due to revenue leakages across sectors — a figure that dwarfs the cost of the government’s major social interventions.
“These are not just numbers. Every dollar lost is a missed opportunity to build a classroom, buy essential medicines, or fund job creation programmes. We are leaking over 30 percent of potential GRA revenue due to illicit financial flows and non-compliance,” Prof. Boadi said.
He called for stronger oversight in the mining, petroleum, and import-export sectors, where under-invoicing, transfer pricing, and tax evasion continue to erode the country’s fiscal base.
Professor Abdallah Ali-Nakyea, a tax lawyer and academic, also argued that Ghana does not lack the legal architecture to tax effectively.
“What we lack is effective implementation. Technology must be our partner. Automation reduces human contact, and that alone curbs opportunities for corruption,” he said.
He acknowledged improvements in online tax return filing and processing of clearance certificates, but stressed the need for greater interconnectivity between systems.
“It is no longer enough for GRA to automate its operations in isolation. The entire ecosystem — Registrar-General, Customs, Petroleum Commission — must be synchronised.”
The petroleum sector has provided a glimpse of what successful tech-led enforcement can achieve. Dr. Eric Boachie Yiadom, Senior Lecturer at UPSA, highlighted the performance of Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Ltd (SML), a private firm contracted to monitor downstream petroleum flows.
According to Dr. Yiadom, SML’s deployment of ultrasonic flow meters, AI-driven surveillance, and real-time reconciliation helped reduce discrepancies between reported and taxable fuel volumes by over 90 percent within four months of its engagement in 2020.
“Prior to SML, we had a 3.2 billion-litre discrepancy. That dropped to 260 million litres,” he said.
He further noted that between May 2020 and December 2024, the system helped identify over 14.1 billion litres of previously unreported fuel, generating more than GH¢20 billion in additional tax revenue. He urged stakeholders to “focus on outcomes, not on speculative narratives.”
Providing the rationale for SML’s risk-based compensation model, its Director of Support Services, Dr. Yaa Serwaa Sarpong, explained that the firm only earns if it delivers measurable results.
“If we don’t perform, we don’t get paid. The state bears no upfront cost,” she said.
Echoing these sentiments, Duncan Amoah, Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), revealed that he was initially sceptical of SML’s operations but changed his position after inspecting the technology firsthand.
“We saw the impact downstream. If this model is extended upstream, the government could triple its revenue from the petroleum sector,” he said.
Despite these positive developments, experts cautioned that revenue enforcement must go hand-in-hand with governance reforms.
“We must not assume that automation alone will solve all our problems,” said Prof. Kwame Gyan of the University of Ghana School of Law. “Integrity in public finance is critical.”
With Ghana’s tax-to-GDP ratio still below 14 percent — significantly below the sub-Saharan African average — stakeholders at the dialogue warned that without decisive reforms, including the consolidation of digital platforms, enforced e-invoicing, and formalisation of the informal sector, the country’s IMF-backed fiscal targets could be at risk.
The dialogue, chaired by His Royal Majesty King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, Ga Mantse, and graced by former President John Agyekum Kufuor as Guest of Honour, ended with a collective call for the urgent implementation of existing reforms. Panellists urged government agencies to move beyond pilot schemes and piecemeal digitisation toward a unified national tax data architecture.
“There’s no justification for introducing new taxes. We must enforce what we already have. And we must do so with speed, scale, and integrity,” Dr. Adam stressed.