According to economist Dr. Patrick Assuming, the 2024 budget shouldn’t include any additional taxes; instead, it should concentrate on tax compliance initiatives.
On Wednesday, November 15, 2023, the government’s 2024 Annual Budget Statement and Economic Policy are expected to be presented to Parliament by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
There have been demands for the government to drastically cut back on spending before the presentation in order to save the failing economy.
Dr. Assuming said that rather than adding new taxes in the 2024 budget, the government should find methods to leverage the ones that are already in place to produce income in an interview that aired on Citi TV’s Point of View on Monday.
“You will expect that there might be some revenue measures, whether you will go the traditional way, which more or less is the easy way of bringing new tax lines or not.”
“Personally, I hope that we will move away from that and focus a lot more on compliance, a lot more on other low-hanging fruits that are there that we can use to raise revenue rather than bringing new tax handles,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Economist said that the removal of taxes in the upcoming budget looked unlikely.
“Overall, the outlook for removing some of the tax measures looks quite unlikely,” he opined.
