The Senior Minister Hon.Yaw Osafo Marfo has made a proposal for all unused lands located at prime areas held by private individuals to be taxed by the government.
According to him, the introduction of such taxes will reduce speculative activities in the acquisition of land.
The Senior Minister bemoaned the act where individuals buy lands in prime areas of the city but refuse to develop them, waiting for their value to appreciate over time to sell without paying taxes to government.
Speaking at the spring 2018 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa organized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Hon. Yaw Osafo Marfo argued that this would increase revenue for the country.
“I am saying that elsewhere, you can’t buy a land in a prime area for speculative reasons and wait for years for the value of the land to go up by fifty times then you sell and put all that money in your pocket”.
Government should tax that land to generate revenue for the country. “It is a recommendation I am making,” he added.
Speaking at the Economic Outlook forum in the presence of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, who observed that the minister can always table the motion before government’s economic team for the proposal to be considered and a policy sent to parliament to be passed.
Making some more proposals that could help revenue mobilization, the Senior Minister stated that collection of property rate which is currently handled by local government agencies could be centralized.
He argued that “the assemblies are unable to collect taxes on behalf of the government.
“Look at the properties in the central business district alone and all the taxes received in the Greater Accra region in 2017 from the local assemblies was a little over 10 million cedis”
He maintained that the local assemblies have no capacity to collect property tax which is very essential for revenue collection for the state.
“This habit is pushing people out of the city to look for land at the outskirt. I think we have not exhausted all the land in the city. It is because people are holding on to it and increasing the value, which forces the rest of us to go out,” he further added.
Sheila Williams
