Policy Briefs – Page 2 – Institute for Fiscal Studies Ghana

September 25, 2019

Assessing the management of Ghana Petroleum Funds [Policy Brief No. 7]

Ghana’s Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) requires a portion of petroleum revenues to be set aside in the Ghana Petroleum Funds (GPFs) for saving and investment. This policy brief presents the ﬁndings of a study which assessed transparency and efﬁciency in the management of the GPFs. To read the full report, click here.

September 25, 2019

Assessing the management of Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) revenue [Policy Brief No. 8]

Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), the national oil company, receives close to one-third of the total petroleum revenues of Ghana, placing it at the core of the country’s aspirations towards effective management of its hydrocarbon resources. This policy brief presents the ﬁndings of a study which assessed transparency and efﬁciency in the management of the petroleum revenue allocated to GNPC. Click here to read the full report.

November 26, 2019

Policy Brief 9: Pass the Tax Exemptions Bill

In contrast to the rapid growth of expenditure, tax revenue in Ghana has remained very low as a share of GDP over the years due to the country’s tax-expenditure regime, including a wide range of exemptions and various forms of preferential tax treatment, concessions and low compliance. The continuous rise of tax exemptions impacts negatively on how much the government mobilizes as revenue to the state. Click here to read the full policy brief.

August 23, 2021

The Role of the Extractive Sector in Ghana’s Comparatively Low Public Sector Revenue Mobilization [Policy Brief No.11]

The government of Ghana has long sought to mobilize adequate revenue through a series of tax and non-tax policy and administration reforms, particularly starting from 1983. Yet, studies have found that, measured as a share of GDP, Ghana’s public sector revenue has performed very poorly relative to most other countries in the developing world. The government often cites three main factors as being the main causes of the problem. These are: (1) the large informal sector, which has proven difficult to tax; (2) weak real property taxation; and (3) the country’s generous tax exemption system. However, credible estimates of untapped […]

January 26, 2022

Assessment of Ghana’s 2022 budget – Institute for Fiscal studies

Ghana has been facing a very difficult fiscal situation for quite some time. Since 2012, the country has run large fiscal deficits, which have led to rapid debt build-up. The ratio of public debt to GDP, which stood at 29.1% in 2011, climbed swiftly to 55.6% in 2016. This led to a sharp increase in interest expenditure from 13.2% of total revenue and grants in 2011 to 35.8% in 2016.

August 18, 2022

IFS’ Assessment of the Government of Ghana’s Fiscal Consolidation Efforts in the Face of the Rapidly Deteriorating Macroeconomic Environment

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta presented the mid-year review of the 2022 budget statement to Parliament on Monday, July 25, 2022. As expected, the review contained revisions to the 2022 macroeconomic forecasts, in light of economic developments since the 2022 budget was announced in November last year. More importantly, it revised the 2022 fiscal projections to take account of budgetary outcomes in the first half of the year, aimed at putting Ghana on a fiscal consolidation path, as a means of addressing the rising macroeconomic instability the country is currently witnessing. Having registered large fiscal deficits in the past decade, which […]