The Presidential Advisor on the Economy and former Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Emmanuel Terkper, says Ghana must focus on the four pillars of general tax systems as key to revenue genera­tion and economic growth.

These are income tax, Value Added Tax (VAT), import duties, and excise tax.

Mr Terkper said this on Wednesday at the launch of his 378-page book, titled “Value Added Tax in Africa-The Ghana Experience”, by the Chief of Staff at the Office of the Vice President, Dr Alex Segbefia, in Accra on Wednesday.

According to Mr Terkper, the introduction of new taxes in the forms of levies and the revamp of the country’s tax system over the past years had created dis­tortion with regard to revenue mobilisation.

“Between 2013 and 2016, we revamped all our tax systems and even separated the excise tax, but there have been some dis­tortions. Also, when we begin to introduce levies, we are mimick­ing one of those four taxes,” Mr Terkper said.

“With the 20 or so taxes that we have introduced, the highest point of the revenue to GDP ra­tio remained 20:50 until 2022 and 2023 when it increased slightly above 15 per cent. What this means is that for all these distor­tions, it never really boosted the tax regime,” he added.

For his part, Dr Segbefia, who represented the Vice Pres­ident, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, described the author of the book as a re­markable gentleman who did not engage in regular politics although he was a politician, but executed his duties effectively based on defined principles, as a former Minister of Finance.

Dr Segbefia advised members of the government to learn from the work of Mr Terkper to be able to discharge their duties effectively.

The Chief of Staff at the Pres­idency, Mr Julius Debrah, urged the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to intensify its sensitisation programmes on tax; especially in the private sector to ensure com­pliances.

“Coming from the private sector, collection of taxes are good, and without it, we can­not build the nation. But some­times, we have a bit of a challenge with the mode with which some of the operatives handle the pri­vate sector.

“Anytime there is a fo­rum and we bring business people together, we seem to have a mis­sion. I am using this opportunity to encourage your public relations department to increase the level of education in the private sector to enhance tax compliance,” Mr Debrah urged.

The reviewer of the book, which was in four parts, Mr Abeku Gyan-Quan­sah, said that it was timely as the government was preparing to review the country’s tax systems.

Additionally, he said that the book that discusses the political and economic angle to VAT, as well as its institutional journey would serve as a reference to peo­ple of diverse fields and a guide to future policy formulation.

The former Minister of Finance and Chairman of the event, Mr Kwame Peprah, took participants through Ghana’s tax regimes, and provided a brief insight into the foreword of the book.

Present at the book launch were former ministers of state, stake­holders in the banking sector, rep­resentatives of the GRA, students, and traditional leaders.