Earlier today I was on Angel TV to offer some public education on E-levy.
One issue that emerged in our conversation was that Ghana lost GHC 12 billion according to the 2020 Auditor General’s report. This information which is false has been widely reported in the media and reechoed by several people.
The facts as presented by the Auditor General’s report are:
A. The losses due to irregularities are from the 2016 to 2020 financial year and not amount lost in 2020 alone. In 2016, the irregularities reported were GHC 2 billion, in 2017 GHC 892 million, in 2018 GHC 5 billion, in 2019 GHC 3 billion and in 2020 GHC 2 billion.
A further breakdown of the figures will reveal the following:
That out of the 2018 GHC 5billion losses about 4.7 billion are tax irregularities from companies, individuals, business entities and individuals who have failed to pay their taxes after assessment by GRA. All these people are being chased to pay their taxes.
More than GHC 1 billion are loans advanced to public sector workers, some of whom have taken steps to pay their indebtedness to the state. In the same vein about GHC 29 million of the amount is also to be paid to the state by government workers as part of the rent irregularities recorded. Steps have already been taken to recover much of these claims back to the state.
A critical analysis of the report will show that steps are being taken to retrieve the losses of which some have been paid into the state coffers and not that the state has completely lost the said amount.
Ghana further needs the E levy to raise additional revenues to meet budget expenditures in 2022, in areas of Youth employment and job creation with the announcement of ghs10 billion Youstart program, aggressive Roads infrastructure and reduced borrowing. Together we can build a Ghana 🇬🇭 we’re proud of, Yes we can.
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