 has cast doubt on government’s ability to achieve its revised total revenue and grants target of GH¢229.95 billion by the end of 2025.){kind=link}
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has cast doubt on government’s ability to achieve its revised total revenue and grants target of GH¢229.95 billion by the end of 2025.
According to the think tank, the upward revision from GH¢227.08 billion to GH¢229.95 billion—representing 16.4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—is unrealistic given the persistent challenges that hinder Ghana’s revenue mobilisation.
Speaking at a press briefing on the government’s mid-year fiscal policy review, Mr. Leslie Dwight Mensah, a research fellow at IFS, noted that despite signs of economic recovery and stabilisation, revenue collection fell short by GH¢3.24 billion in the first half of the year.
He observed that government had not revised its projections downward, nor introduced robust revenue-enhancing measures, aside from the expected GH¢2.87 billion to be raised from the new GH¢1 petroleum levy.
“To achieve the revised revenue target, the government must close this gap and simultaneously meet its original revenue target for the second half of the year, which will be difficult to achieve,” Mr. Mensah said.
IFS stressed that Ghana’s struggle to push revenue and grants to 16% of GDP has persisted for over eight years. It argued that the 2025 goal of mobilising 16.4% of GDP with strategies similar to those used in previous years is unlikely to succeed.
The think tank has, therefore, urged government to reset its revenue mobilisation strategy with a stronger focus on the extractive sector. It suggested that adopting a production-sharing agreement model could earn Ghana as much as US$4 billion annually.