E-levy: Stop Running ‘Kitikiti’ After Poor Ghanaians And ‘Bamba’ With the Big Earners – Kwaku Azar Advises Gov’t

Lawyer Stephen Kwaku Asare (Kwaku Azar) has advised government to consider going after the big earners in the country who avoid taxes.

In a Facebook post he disspelled the notion that most Ghanaians don’t pay taxes.

According to him, those “who should be paying taxes are not doing so, unlawfully, and in some cases are even being exempted from doing so.”

“The problem is not that most Ghanafuo do not pay taxes. The problem is that most Ghanafuo who should be paying taxes are not doing so, unlawfully, and in some cases are even being exempted from doing so,” Kwaku Azar posted.

He adviced the government to go after the big earners and stop harassing the poor who earn little.

“Therefore, when it comes to increasing the tax envelope, we should stop running kiti kiti after most Ghanafuo, who have little or no income, and bamba with the big time earners who avoid and evade taxes.”

“That means going after gold exporters who misprice their exports, life style audit and tax surcharges of those whose wealth cannot be explained by their declared sources of income, ending subsidies of profitable companies in the form of tax exemptions, ensuring that our SOEs are run by the best boards and CEOs so that they are making profits, etc.It is true that the MOMO highway is more lighted. But that is not a good reason to be looking there for our lost tax revenues. We must look for our lost tax revenues where we lost them — the dark alleys of tax avoidance, evasion and exemption,” he wrote.

Source: GhanaFeed.com