IFS and Ghanaian Ministry of Finance disseminate their joint work at event in Accra, Ghana, attended by key public sector, private sector and international stakeholders

Researchers from IFS TAXDEV were in Accra on 7th March 2018 for an event hosted by the Ghanaian Ministry of Finance (MoF). The event was a chance to present ongoing work on tax policy analysis that is being undertaken in collaboration with the MoF and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and to get feedback and suggestions from key stakeholders. 

IFS researchers David Phillips and Ross Warwick and MoF analysts Seth Anoff Akuffo and Andara Kamara from the Revenue Policy Division (RPD), presented three strands of their joint work:

1. Refining approaches to costing new tax policies, including accounting for the potential impacts of policies on taxpayer behavior.

2. Building a tax and transfer microsimulation model (GHATAX) to assess the impacts of tax and transfer policies and policy proposals on the incomes of different sections of Ghanaian society

3. Improving the availability of micro-level tax data, to allow more reliable and accurate tax policy analysis

Anthony Dzadrza, director of the RPD, introduced and closed the event, and Edward Abrokwah, Principal Economics Officer of the RPD set out the background to our joint work, and chaired discussions. 

The event was attended by representatives from several divisions of the MoF, the GRA, the Ghana Statistical Service, the International Growth Centre, the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, the University of Ghana, the IMF, USAID, GIZ, DfID, PwC, KPMG and Ali Nakyea and Associates. Attendees provided useful comments and suggestions on taking this work forward and provided positive feedback on the work undertaken to date.