KMA to miss its revenue target by 25%

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) will lose GHC8 million this year, a quarter of its projected annual tax revenue of GHC32 million, Samuel Opoku Amponsah, the deputy financial officer of the assembly, has said.

The expected shortfall is just one effect of the coronavirus disease on businesses within the metropolis, he said.

The KMA was expecting to use part of the revenue it generates to execute many projects this year, but its projection has dropped to GHC24 million.

Reverend Opoku Amponsah said this will affect expenditure funded from the assembly’s internally generated funds. He said daily collections by the assembly could not be realised during the lockdown period.

Tax collection

Reverend Opoku Amponsah said the assembly has put in place a task force to help undertake rigorous tax collection, gather data and help sensitise the general public on voluntary tax compliance.

He said part of the monies the KMA collects is used to clean the Central Business District (CBD) and various markets. The money also goes towards running the city’s landfill sites.

Reverend Opoku Amponsah also noted that the assembly’s expenditure pattern has increased. Part of its income has been spent on social interventions, especially COVID-19.

“COVID-19 demands that there are social interventions, and the assembly did its part,” he said. The KMA undertook COVID-19 support at various health centres, in marketplaces, at lorry parks and through selected radio stations.

“Without the payment of taxes, we cannot support the development of the country,” he said. “The assembly supports security, education and health developments, among other things, of the local people.”

Though it is likely that the negative variance in tax projections will not be reversed by the fourth-quarter boom in sales, the KMA is optimistic that a property revaluation exercise can shore up its property tax proceeds.

Going digital

The KMA’s contribution to revenue over the years has not been favourable. In 2019 the city accounted for a meagre 3% of Ghana’s tax intake, despite brisk business activity.

Meanwhile, the Tax Justice Coalition, a civil society organisation which focuses on tax mobilisation and policing Ghana’s tax regimes, says the country has been lax in rolling out innovative solutions to challenges of revenue collection.

Christopher Dapaah, the Middle Belt zonal co-ordinator of the Tax Justice Coalition, said there is a need to deploy practical digital technologies vigorously to monitor and facilitate tax collection.

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