The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) exceeded its revenue target in the Ashanti Region last year by GHc74 million.
With a 2018 target of GHc578 million, the authority raised GHc652 million in Kumasi and its outlets however the authority missed its national target last year.
With a national target of GHc39 billion, the tax folks managed to only raise GHc37 billion with the Principal Revenue Officer of the GRA in the Ashanti Region; Edward Aggrey-Fynn announcing at the tax week in the region that any staff found to be aiding tax defaulters or making personal gains at the expense of the authority will be sanctioned.
Although the Authority missed the 2018 tax revenue collection target of GHc39,802 billion by GHc2171.73million – representing a negative variance of 5.5 percent, the collected sum of GHc37,630.54billion represented 94.5 percent of the target which was an improvement over the 2017 inflow.
“Payment of tax is also a religious duty those eligible to pay tax must honour,” Mr. Aggrey-Fynn submitted.
He stated the authority is not relenting in its perennial tax education urging folks to “pay their tax voluntarily without being forced to.”
This year, the Authority seeks to curtail revenue leakages while activating the implementation of the Electronic Point of Sale Device as a way of improving the Value Added Tax (VAT) collection.
Other measures include full implementation of the Excise Tax Stamp Policy; an effective and full implementation of the Taxpayer Identification Number as a requirement for carrying out transactions with identified state agencies; and regular and consistent visits to business centres by GRA staff complemented by NABCO personnel to register more tax payers.
By Michael Eli Dokosi/goldstreetbusiness.com
