An analysis of the impact of jurisdictional fragmentation on property taxes in Ghana

Abstract

Purpose Following decades of weak financial capacity of local governments in raising enough revenues to finance their budgets, this paper aims to examine the impact of jurisdictional fragmentation on property taxes in Ghana. Since independence in 1957, many local governments in Ghana are yet to build their fiscal capacity to collect enough own source revenues to support their local budgets. All local government laws in Ghana have assigned property taxes to local governments. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses quantitative econometric techniques with local level panel data from 2010 to 2016 to examine the impact of fragmenting assemblies in Ghana. Findings The paper finds that fragmenting local governments have an overall negative effect on property taxes in district assemblies in Ghana. However, fragmentation of metropolitan assemblies has an overall positive effect on property taxes, relative to district assemblies. In the case of municipal assemblies, fragmentation has a net positive effect on property taxes but an overall marginally negative effect, relative to district assemblies. Also, the paper finds that grants, capital expenditure and administrative expenditure of local governments do not impact on the collection of property tax revenues in all types of assemblies in Ghana. Originality/value The paper concludes that relative to metropolitan assemblies, fragmenting districts assemblies is not congruent with government efforts to promote the collection of property taxes in Ghana.