Policy analyst Sitsofe Mensah has linked Ghana’s recurring fiscal challenges to long-standing tax exemption practices repeatedly flagged by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Mensah noted that for over a decade, IMF country reports have identified tax waivers as a major source of revenue leakage, warning that Ghana loses billions annually through exemptions granted to firms that do not require fiscal support.
“For over 10 years, the IMF has said the same thing: stop giving free passes to people who don’t need them,” Mensah wrote. “For over 10 years, our leaders have responded, ‘We will review it.’”
According to him, the promised reviews have not materialised because the exemption framework serves political interests rather than economic necessity.
“The exemption regime is not a mistake,” Mensah stated. “It is a feature. It is how political favours are traded and how friends of the party are rewarded.”
Mensah argued that these waivers function as a form of state-sanctioned tax avoidance, authorised through legal processes but detached from public interest outcomes.
“It is legalised tax evasion for the connected,” he said, “signed and sealed by the very institution meant to protect the public purse.”
He further questioned why successive IMF programmes continue to focus on austerity measures affecting citizens while the structural causes of revenue loss remain intact.
“National expenses do not disappear when exemptions are granted,” Mensah said. “They are shifted onto those least able to pay.”
