In his opening remarks, Nana Osei-Bonsu, Chief Executive Officer for PEF said the aim of the meeting is to explain tax regimes, the responsibilities on tax payers and also what it takes to pay taxes.  He said that the SME sector constitutes about 93 per cent of business and only pays 4 per cent of the nation’s taxes resulting in a big disparity. "We have to look at why people are not paying their requisite share of taxes". 

He said that there is a need to segment the tax payment system so that not all businesses will have to pay the flat rate of 25 per cent. He said that it should rather be dependent on turnover. "It looks like our infant industries are having problems with tax payments".

Nana Osei-Bonsu added that there are varied reasons why businesses fail to comply or register with the GRA. He said that the introduction of the Tax Identification Number (TIN) will afford businesses the opportunity to register with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). However, there is the question of fairness in relation to tax charges for small companies.

He said that there must be consistent education and knowledge sharing on the part of the GRA because there are new businesses coming up each day. He added that responses from the meeting will be collated from the meeting and presented to the relevant stakeholders to dialogue on the way forward.

Mr Issac Nyame, a tax consultant took participants through the filling of a questionnaire. It had areas such as the sort of businesses participants operate, their annual income levels, if their businesses are registered with the GRA and the type of terms they comply with.

Speaking with a participant, Mr Sackey Van Steve , a businessman, said that  complying with the tax laws in Ghana is a bit difficult. He said that events like the PEF meeting offer relief to business owners by making it easier for them to comply with tax laws.

He said that  Ghana has too many tax laws and within these tax laws there are various levels of deductions with different rates for different activities which he finds confusing. He said GRA's education and sensitization programs are not enough because "most of the time such sensitization is done for bigger corporations who have the resources to employ professionals or the services of professional companies to help them leaving out small businesses".

He also pointed out that the sensitization programmes are centered in urban areas especially, in Accra. He emphasized that the tax rate of 25 per cent is too high and urged a downward review so businesses can expand and create more jobs.