The government of Ghana has since independence depended on the donor community to fund between 30-40% of its budget over the years. Various efforts have been made by previous governments to reverse the trend. The current government led by Nana Addo Dankwah  Akuffo-Addo has announced its intention to wean itself from donor support with the ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ idea. Some of the support has come with unfavourable conditionalities that some Ghanaians did not like, but others saw them as necessary for us to use the funds for their intended purposes.

When President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo hosted the President of France, also when the Minister for Finance gave a lecture at the Fifth Anniversary of the death of late Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama, and on a number of occasions the current Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia have all spoken about the Ghana Beyond Aid – more recently when he met the regional ministers in Kumasi. Achieving this depends on all of us as citizens raising more internal revenue through taxes.

At the same time, very ambitious social intention programmes have been rolled out or are being revamped to make them sustainable; such as Free SHS, NHIS, School Feeding programme, restoration of teachers and nurses allowance etc. Government needs to mobilise internal resources mainly through taxation to finance all these programmes.

It is in view of the above need for revenue that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has intensified its efforts at collecting taxes owed by persons – individuals and corporate institutions. This is a good thing in our efforts at securing financial independence.

The crux of the matter for succeeding in weaning ourselves from donors is through formalisation of the Ghanaian economy to rope-in all persons who earn income and are eligible to pay taxes. Indeed, many people clamour for more social intervention programmes and social infrastructure from government, yet they don’t contribute any of their income from either employment, business or investments.

Again, that group of people has a higher propensity to give birth to many children so that government must invest in social amenities to meet their needs. Statistics available indicate that only 1.2million Ghanaians pay taxes out of an eligible four million people. Indeed, this is likely to be an underestimation.

This article focuses on a segment of people, the artisans, who are out of the income tax net yet earn a lot of income – sometimes more than those in formal sector employment. These include masons, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, tilers, POP installers etc. A carpenter can roof a three-bedroom house and charge GH¢5,000 and complete in two weeks, collect his money and pay no taxes to the state. A similar carpenter in the ministries will earn GH¢800 per month and suffer PAYE income tax to be used on building schools that both carpenters’ children will attend. Certainly, this is not fair.

There is an example of formalisation initiated by the Energy Commission of Ghana that is worth copying and improving on. Under that policy, any electrician who has not been certified by the Commission cannot wire a house (and to some extent cannot undertake electrical repair works), or else the ECG will not connect power to that house.

The Energy Commission took the people through training and certification, and therefore has their database: and I believe that in applying to ECG for power connection, it will refer to that database to be sure the electrician is qualified to wire the house before connection will be made after it makes other routine checks. This was done for a different purpose from tax, but I believe it is an initiative that could be extended to tax collection.

Firstly, that database could be linked to the National Identification system and the people given Tax Identification Numbers (TIN).

Secondly, at the point of registering for their Ghana card by stating their profession, the number should be added to their database in the National Identification System.

The others in plumbing, masonry, carpeting etc. should be trained and certified by the Ministry of Works and Housing or Labour Commission for similar purposes. If you are not certified, you cannot offer such services to the public for income.

The next issue is registering all landlords (completed and uncompleted buildings, using the Ghana Post-GPS property addressing system and making them withholding tax agents (with extra punitive sanctions for failing to account and pay taxes so withheld to the GRA). We should know that in paying artisans the GPS address of the house will be quoted for easy tracking, and receipts given to the artisan who can report to GRA to check if the landlord who deducted the amount has remitted such to the GRA within the same week –  not 15^th of the following month as with the corporate institutions.

The challenges associated with the above include monitoring by the GRA staff, collusion between the landlords and artisans, landlords’ failure to deduct and remit to GRA; and above all, the political will to implement it. Public education to let the artisans appreciate that is in their own interest; pre-emptive initiatives to scatter the ‘poison from the opposition’ is also very critical.  The NCCE could assist in this regard, as it has started with the GRA on tax education.

As citizens of Ghana in the middle-income bracket, we must work at self-economic independence by contributing to the national coffers through our income taxes – for little drops of water, they say, make a mighty ocean. The other issue is fighting against the corruption that quenches citizens’ interest and desire to voluntarily pay their taxes.

With tax compliance and a sustained fight against corruption in public procurement and administration, we can be self-sufficient and gradually the donor-dependent syndrome will go away so our national pride can be restored and boosted. Let us all – as Ghanaians, no matter your profession – contribute to national development by paying our fair share of taxes and be justified in asking for our fair share of national development.

“The sun does not forget a village just because it is small.” – Ghanaian proverb

As we round up the last few days of the year, the frenzy about making new plans for the coming year has set in. As usual, it is all about creating better lives for ourselves. And as always this is all good, except it is about time we realised better lives do not consist of our usual lies and tricks and instead convey facts and truths. Make our humanity more meaningful is pillared on truth, goodness and beauty. Given that many among us really have wants, we need to examine the form and content of the present – especially the metaphors behind the many things we take for granted; our songs and jokes as examples. It is time we recognised that our unethical behaviour, not our weaknesses, creates difficulties for others – who in their bid to overcome them develop attitudes which negatively affect us too.

Meaning is the fragrance and blossom of all our endeavours. A better life is a meaningful one, and those who live it know they need to make sacrifice upon sacrifice instead of short-circuiting the road. It is the quest for meaning that inspires us to develop profound insights about everyday moments, leading to the unearthing of energies within ourselves to improve upon who we are until we emerge better, more humane, and much more real than the trends floating round us. That is why the hurdles, rather than the flattened paths, grant us the most intimate and interesting moments of life.

We cannot truly be ourselves without an awareness of the meaning surrounding us. Living is not a concept waiting for us at the end of the road. Rather, it is the art of being awake to the world around us, unafraid to experiment and impact everyone and everything with the highest sense of creativity and ethicality. It is similar to what Alice James wrote in her diary in the middle of June in 1889: “I went out today, and behaved like a lunatic, sobbed…over a farmhouse, a meadow, some trees and cawing rooks. Nurse says that there are some people downstairs who drive everywhere and admire nothing. How grateful I am that I actually do see, to my own consciousness, the quarter of an inch that my eyes fall upon; truly, the subject is all that counts!”

Whatever it is that we want to do in the coming year and the years that will follow, our lives will be better if we focus on appreciating whatever cards have been dealt to us and finding their meaning. It is in meaning that we will find the lives we are meant to live, and subsequently enrich the innermost truth of our beings for a meaningful life. We need to understand that life happens in many forms and variations.

We may be pursuing different aspirations and going through different challenges, but the reality is that we are all living life. We live it as it offers itself to us. Our headache is to make sure we make the best possible impression on it, so that it will always remember us wherever we go from here onward. This insight should propel us to bolster the little faith within us to stand firm and tall, and brace ourselves for the wonders life pours on us along the way.

Meaning, when it comes, is beyond anything we expect it to be. It is so engaging it fills us to the brim with fullness. And yet it does not mesmerise us about ourselves, but energises us to consciously choose to consecrate rather than desecrate; to smile, instead of pulling a face; to help others with what we have, relative to waiting to be helped in our helplessness. It challenges us to appreciate the efforts of others whether they are beginners or in their prime, as well as those who are privileged to be accomplished. It is like the first rays of the sun on a new day, bringing forth new life. And we are to rejoice because of this new life, and contribute to its unfolding in a manner that will mesmerise posterity.

The ‘better life’ we desire involves more than writing new resolutions when the New Year begins. It needs to be stewed with perseverance. We must bear witness to the truth, goodness and beauty we proclaim, so that others can embrace our light. If not us, then who else? In the coming year, let us be guided by this beautiful poem whose author is unknown.

“This is a little story about four people named Everybody,

Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job.

Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn’t do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.”

Merry Christmas…

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