Our Grant Partner SEND Ghana released a press statement during the week as part of its GESI Strategic project, dubbed ‘Promoting Progressive Tax for Inclusive Development (PPTID)’ which seeks an improved tax system that supports the socially excluded and micro-enterprises. Specifically, the project seeks to:
- To facilitate the involvement of socially excluded groups in tax advocacy;
- To increase civil society's responsiveness to regressive tax regime through media engagement;
- To influence the replacement of regressive tax system with a progressive tax regime.
The focus of the project is national tax policy influencing, and hence it will influence all Ghanaians who fall into the general description of socially excluded such as the poor, vulnerable and marginalised citizens.
The progressive tax policy implementation has implication for reducing inequality. This is because a progressive tax regime is a proven tool for redistributing income from the upper class and large businesses to lower income earners and microbusinesses.
The project will build on SEND Ghana's tried and tested Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PM&E) framework and other technological approaches to increase implementation of progressive tax policies and initiatives to have the socially excluded groups advocating tax reforms from regressive to progressive regime and to increase civil society's influence in progressive tax reforms.
As part of the PPTID project, SEND Ghana will work with the socially excluded, mobilise, sensitise and gather their perspectives on how existing tax policies disfavour their social and economic progress. SEND Ghana as part of the project will organise a national campaign on the benefits of a progressive tax regime. This is to reduce the opposition to the introduction of tax policies that increase rates for people, companies and entities that earn more and cut rates for lower income earners as well as microbusinesses.
STAR-Ghana’s Community of Practice and Learning (CoPL) cluster on Economic Rights and Empowerment, the Tax Justice Network, the media and the CSOs platform on SDGs will in collaboration with SEND Ghana contribute to bridge the gap between high incomes earners, large businesses and the poor, vulnerable and socially excluded from growing wider by influencing a more progressive tax reforms and actual implementation.