Ghana Revenue Authority wants to exceed target by 41.9 percent

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is determined to exceed its collection target this year by 41.9% -- it has been charged to collect GH₵18,650.43 million.

The break down is: domestic tax GH8, 476.99 million, domestic indirect tax GH₵2,741.51 million as well as Customs GH₵7,431.93 million.

“Last year was a particularly challenging one for revenue mobilisation in the country, which was a reflection of the general challenges faced by the economy -- out of a revenue target of GH₵15,609.52million, GRA collected GH₵13,161.19 million, giving a negative deviation of GH₵2,448.55 million or 15.7%,” Mr. George Blankson, the Commissioner General of GRA has said.

Mr. Blankson said this at the opening of a three-day retreat for management of GRA in Takoradi on the theme “Exceeding a challenge revenue target in 2014: strategies for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness in revenue collection”.

He said even though the 2013 revenue target could not be achieved, 2013 collection was a 12% improvement or growth over the 2012 collection – “I wish to say that the inability of GRA to meet the 2013 revenue target is the first one in recent memory, and I hope that this will not be repeated this year or the years ahead”.

He pointed out that among the reasons accounting for the inability of GRA to meet the revenue target for 2013 are: a fall in import volume; fall in world market price of gold and decline in production of gold in Ghana; and slowdown of economic activities as a result of erratic supply of electricity -- especially in the first half of 2013 among others.

“We are here primarily to evolve strategies to enable us confront a challenging 2014 target; therefore I wish participants to see this retreat as both brain-storming and action-oriented,” he said.

Mr. Seth Terkper, the Minister of Finance, in an address read for him said the ministry felt disappointed at the end of 2013 by the inability of GRA to meet its target.

“This is because this has not happened before in recent times, and it is our hope that as always GRA will be equal to the task --- however, I wish to congratulate management and staff for a good job done and we hope you will surmount whatever challenges that come to make us proud this year,” he said.

He noted that Ghana is now a lower middle-income country -- the implication of our new status is that support from our development partners has reduced considerably in favour of other nations down the development ladder.

“This means that if we are to quicken the pace of our development, then we must depend so much on domestic sources of revenue,” he added.

He said in the light of the very competing and legitimate demands from all sectors of the economy, GRA must dig deep into its arsenal of compliance measures and procedures in its collection efforts.

Mr. Ralph Tufour, the Board Chairman of GRA, called on management to be more proactive than they have been, and engage more frequently with stakeholders to appreciate and address their concerns.

By Juliet Dugbartey | B&FT Online | Ghana