A Fiscal Policy analyst at OXFAM Ghana, Dr. Alex Ampabeng, has backed the Ghana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) moves to clamp down on business in the name of boosting tax revenue.

Dr. Ampabeng stressed that Ghana needed to be working to improve tax compliance.

He also said the GRA needed to be commended for taking the initiative to raise the needed revenue for the government.

“Coming to revenue collection, Ghana is only making about under 13 percent of GDP… there are leakages in the system. Tax compliance is really weak, especially within the very sectors they are looking at.”

“I think GRA deserves our support… we are going to the IMF and one of the major reasons is we are not collecting enough taxes,” he said on The Big Issue.

The GRA this week closed some shops for failing to integrate their value-added tax (VAT) invoices into the authority’s newly deployed eE-VAT Invoicing system as a measure to help it block revenue loopholes.

The system will allow the authority to monitor sales real-time.

Four branches of Palace Mall and some branches of China Mall were affected in the exercise.

National Organiser of the New Patriotic Party Henry Nana Boakye popularly known as Nana B however called on the revenue authority to re-evaluate the decision.

Fifty companies were selected to be linked to this E-VAT Invoicing system that will certify all invoices and give real-time reporting of sales.

The deadline for this process was October 1.

The GRA has said the locked-up businesses will be reopened once they connect to the authority’s E-VAT Invoicing system.