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Ghana
ACCRA, Ghana- Following a recent study that concluded South Saharan African countries are losing millions of tax dollars due to the avoidance of tax by multinational enterprises, the authorities in Ghana have decided to set up a transfer pricing unit to combat the practice, an official confirmed Feb. 29.
Samuel Chekpeche, a tax expert with Ghana's Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, said Ghana over the years has not been able to check the phenomenon, but has now put in place the appropriate legislation, which has not yet been placed before Parliament.
He added that "human resource to run the unit when it becomes functional" is likely to be a problem.
Rebecca Teiko Dottey, the country manager in Ghana for U.K. -based nongovernmental organization Christian Aid, said in an interview March 1 that "the local tax authorities have the manpower to fight tax avoidance by the multinational enterprises. However, the big international auditing firms poach the experienced ones whom they use to help the companies to use the existing loopholes to avoid tax."
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's senior adviser on tax transparency and transfer pricing, Lee Corrick, said the OECD, the European Commission, and the World Bank are working together on providing coherent and coordinated support to developing countries, which work is closely linked into existing country tax reform programs. In Ghana the transfer pricing work is closely integrated into, and aligned with, Ghana/Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit's (GIZ) Good Financial Governance program. Part of the program is to assist the tax administration in deciding how it structures its organization so it...