Ghana’s import duties target missed by GH¢427.55 million – MoF data
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta
Provisional fiscal data released by the Minister of Finance (MoF) has revealed revenue made from duties on goods imported to Ghana from other countries amounted to only GH¢829.71 million in the first quarter of 2020.
Read full articleAccording to the data, the shortfall pegs the country’s import revenue generation target at some 34 percent short. This is as against a target of GH¢1.26 billion amid a further shortfall of GH¢427.55 million representing 34.01 percent.
The provisional figures however indicated the accrued amount further declined by 42.47 percent as against some GH¢1.44 billion recorded for the same period in 2019.
Despite the revenue shortfalls, government in the first quarter of 2020 granted import exemptions in the amount of GH¢43.08 million to foreign entities and other institutions.
Though experts say the move impedes government’s annual revenue targets, an amount of GH¢5.81 million is projected to be lost from import duties.
Meanwhile, data released by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) indicated the country’s total exports surpassed imports by US$780 million as of February 2020.
According to the central bank, the Balance of Trade for Ghana represented 1.1 percent of the total value of all goods and services produced in the country.
Additionally, this year’s figure is an increase compared to the US$378 million or 0.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), recorded in February 2019.
The BoG attributed the increase to the fact that the country’s imports declined for the period, while it benefited from the increase in some prices of commodities like cocoa and gold.
