The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has achieved the remarkable achievement of exceeding the authority’s revenue target for three years under the direction of the Commissioner General Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah.
With a combined target of GH¢171.66 billion, the GRA can generate GH¢178.16 billion between 2020 and 2022, including revised targets of GH¢42.7 billion, GH¢57.02 billion and GH¢71.94 billion for 2020, 2022 and 2022. . GRA exceeded its target by GH¢ 6.5 billion, representing 3.79 percent more.
This outstanding performance can be attributed to GRA’s commitment to implement technology initiatives, which improve the transparency and efficiency of tax administration. Despite the challenges faced during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Customs Management System has played an important role in contributing to exceeding the revenue target in 2020.
The dedication of GRA staff, along with the cooperation of taxpayers, is also key to the success achieved. The authority is poised to double by 2023 and the Commissioner General has assured that the outfit will continue to enforce tax compliance to increase tax collection.
Taxpayers are encouraged to voluntarily comply with their tax obligations, which will help the country obtain sufficient funds for national development.
Before the pandemic year 2020, GRA was able to exceed the revenue target in 2016 and 2018, while it was less in 2017 and 2019.
Key Policy Measures
In 2020, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) implemented the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) to replace the previous system for customs. The new system aims to improve efficiency, improve revenue collection, and reduce revenue leakage in the customs process. Authorities have been working to digitize processes to improve efficiency and reduce corruption. For example, in 2020, GRA launched a digital platform for taxpayers to access its services, including filing tax returns and making payments.
During the 2021 fiscal year, GRA introduced several initiatives to increase voluntary compliance in return filing, tax payment and to ensure maximum revenue collection. These initiatives include the TIN/GhanaCard Policy, Claims Policy and Cashless Policy. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, GRA exceeded its targets, and IT systems like ICUMS and ITaPS minimize tax evasion and avoidance conveniently for taxpayers to honor their tax obligations.
The GRA is also expanding tax education and sensitization programs, implementing a digital tax stamp system, and expanding the Taxpayer Office (LTO) in 2021 to increase compliance and revenue mobilization from large taxpayers. The authority has further strengthened its tax audit and investigation unit to improve tax compliance and reduce revenue leakage.
In 2022, the GRA outlined a new tax strategy to achieve the government’s revenue targets, including e-commerce taxing, online tax filing by large taxpayers, and taxing the gaming industry and online betting from April 2022. The authority also intends to increase the value. Additional tax (“VAT”) is imposed on online services and products. In addition, the GRA plans to expand the pay-as-you-earn (“PAYE”) data by adding a minimum of 2 million new taxpayers to the database, expanding the tax net to about 3 million by the end of December 2022, and influencing the property tax to increase the tax rent by December 2022. Finally, the Authority intends to intensify the audit and taxation of the extractive industry and introduce a debt collection ratio of five percent (5%) or less near December 2022.
Annual performance
In 2020, the Ghana Revenue Authority exceeded its revised revenue target by 6%, collecting GH¢ 45.338 billion compared to the revised target of GH¢ 42.7 billion. This is an increase of 3.3% compared to the same period of the previous year. Initially, the Authority had set a target of GH¢47.25 billion, which was later revised due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Customs Division of the Authority performed well, surpassing its target of GH¢ 10.9 billion by collecting GH¢ 12.6 billion, representing a 4.5% year-on-year increase.
Moving into 2021, GRA achieved its revenue target of GH¢57.02 billion, collecting more than GH¢57.32 billion, which is a growth rate of 26.3% over the 2020 revenue, the highest annual growth in the last decade. The Domestic Tax Revenue Division performed well, collecting GH₵41.23 billion, which is a 25.6% increase over the 2020 revenue performance. The Customs Division also performed well, collecting ¢16.08 billion, which represents a 26.8% increase over the 2020 performance.
In 2022, the GRA mobilized GH¢ 75.5 billion in domestic revenue, exceeding the target by GH¢ 3.60 billion, representing a 5% increase from the previous year’s target of GH¢ 71.94 billion. This achievement also means that the GRA collected 31.5% more domestic revenue than in 2021.
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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