The services of the government depend on revenue earnings. Each government tries to establish a policy on how to earn revenue in order to meet expenditure outlays to provide several services that the population needs. The sources of revenue may be diversified or very limited in scope.
In his address at the award ceremony convened by GRA to motivate tax payers to follow best examples the President of the Republic made it categorically clear that the policy of the government should hinge on expanding the tax base. This is confirming that GRA is the key institution for ensuring revenue earning through taxation.
The facts are clear that the government like its predecessors depend largely on taxation and donor support to meet its expenditures. Any shortfall in revenue earnings would increase the domestic debt. Effort has to be made to expand the tax base if over taxation of the few tax payers is to be avoided. How that is to be done is the challenge faced by the government.
There are other economic theories that taxation is not the type of revenue base that could lead to the eradication of poverty. We therefore hope that the GRA ceremony would open up a conversation on how to increase revenue without increasing hardship in an economy which enables only a few to earn middle income while supporting their families.
It is not unusual to find government revenue amounting to 14 billion with taxation more than 12 billion and non-tax revenue less than 2 billion. We had anticipated that the government will look at the expansion of the non-tax base rather than focusing on the tax base.
However Foroyaa will continue to monitor the situation to see how far it can go in being weaned off total reliance on donor support in meeting its expenditure.
