Ghana publishes its first Medium-Term Revenue Strategy

On 30th September 2023, the Government of Ghana published its first Medium-Term Revenue Strategy (MTRS), setting out a plan for review and reform of key elements of both revenue policy and administration.

The MTRS was produced by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) in collaboration with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and other government agencies, and draws on both technical analysis and stakeholder engagement on the challenges and opportunities facing Ghana’s tax and non-tax revenue systems. It provides a roadmap for revenue policy reform over the four-year period from 2024 to 2027, with the aim of significantly increasing both tax and non-tax revenues to ensure fiscal sustainability and fund Ghana’s ambitious development objectives, while promoting economic growth and ensuring fairness and efficiency. In doing this, it builds on reforms undertaken in recent years, and aligns with the Government of Ghana’s broader economic strategy.

The policy and administration measures in the MTRS are grouped under 11 themes, covering different areas of taxation and different strategic objectives, such as supporting domestic productive capacity, facilitating international trade, supporting environmentally sustainable development, and seizing the opportunity that digitalisation of the tax system and economy presents. Reforms are also guided by the principles of progressivity, predictability, neutrality and simplicity. 

TaxDev supported the MoF in the development of the strategy, focusing particularly on estimating the revenue effects of policy proposals, and the analysis of Ghana’s recent and longer-term economic, social and fiscal situation. TaxDev researchers took part in a range of meetings and workshops throughout the production of the MTRS and have undertaken reviews of Ghana’s VAT system and the distributional effects of Ghana’s tax system that have fed into policy deliberations.  

In the coming months and years, the MoF and GRA will put the MTRS into practice, with a structured programme of policy and administration reforms. TaxDev researchers will support this process by working with the MoF to help them analyse and design the specific reforms that will implement the road-map set out in the MTRS, guided by more detailed consultation with stakeholders. TaxDev will also collaborate with MoF partners in the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the MTRS to ensure that policy remains responsive to Ghana’s economic and fiscal situation, and lessons are learned for the future.

The MTRS is available on the MoF website.