The Government has placed revenue enforcement and anti-leakage reforms at the centre of its 2026 economic agenda, unveiling a GH¢268.1 billion revenue target that hinges heavily on cleaning up inefficiencies within the tax and import systems.
Presenting the Budget Statement to Parliament, Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson said the ambitious target—18.3 per cent higher than last year—will only be realised if Ghana successfully blocks loopholes that have drained public finances for years.
A significant part of the new strategy focuses on import-related fraud. Dr Forson revealed that recent audits uncovered widespread abuse of Import Declaration Forms (IDFs), which enabled illicit forex transfers and chronic under-valuation of imports. The scheme, he said, denied the state nearly GH¢11 billion in expected revenue.
To confront this, the government has set up an Inter-Agency Committee to verify all import-linked transfers, while the Bank of Ghana will henceforth cross-match every forex transfer with confirmed import data. The Ghana Revenue Authority has also been tasked to create a specialised recovery unit to retrieve revenue losses identified through these audits.
While Non-Oil Tax Revenue—projected at GH¢216.1 billion—remains the foundation of domestic mobilisation, Dr Forson stressed that the objective is not to increase the burden on compliant taxpayers. Instead, the Medium-Term Revenue Strategy will focus on expanding the tax net, tightening enforcement, and modernising collection systems.
On the expenditure front, the minister warned that strict sanctions under the Public Financial Management Act will be applied to agencies that breach commitment controls or accumulate arrears unlawfully.
Overall, the 2026 fiscal plan aims to deliver a Primary Surplus of 1.5 per cent of GDP, signalling what the minister described as a disciplined but growth-oriented posture. He said this approach would preserve resources for key programmes such as the “Big Push” infrastructure drive and the “24-Hour Economy” initiative, intended to stimulate productivity and job creation.
