GRA exceeds revenue target by GH¢3.6bn
The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) mobilised GH¢75.5 billion domestic revenue last year, GH¢3.60 billion more than it was tasked to collect.
The collection was a five per cent increase over last year’s target of GH¢71.94 billion.
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The feat also meant the domestic revenue the GRA mobilised was 31.5 per cent more than what was collected in 2021.
Taxpayer’s cooperation
The Commissioner-General of the GRA, Rev. Dr Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, attributed the performance to the rigorous efforts in the application of technological initiatives which brought about transparency and efficiency in tax administration.
He also cited the commitment of staff and the cooperation of taxpayers, adding that although the 2023 target was yet to be set, the authority was now poised to double its effort this year.
In 2022, the authority was tasked to collect tax revenue of GH¢80.30 billion.
However, in the 2022 Mid-Year Budget and Economic Policy Statement, the target was revised to GH¢71.94 billion, a reduction of GH¢8.36 billion, representing 10.4 per cent.
“I am happy to announce that by the close of the 2022 fiscal year, the authority had collected total tax revenue of GH¢75.54 billion, as against the revised target of GH¢71.94 billion, exceeding the target by GH¢3.60 billion.
“This performance represents a nominal growth of 31.5 per cent over the tax revenue collected in the 2021 fiscal year,” he said.
Break down
Rev. Dr Owusu-Amoah explained that domestic tax revenue and customs revenue recorded nominal growth of 28.9 and 38.4 per cent, respectively.
He said the tax revenue collected by the Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD) in 2022 was GH¢53.28 billion, as against a target of GH¢51.75 billion, representing an increase of GH¢1.53 billion.
He said the Customs Division, on the other hand, collected GH¢22.26 billion, as against a target of GH¢20.20 billion, also exceeding the target by GH¢2.06 billion.
2023 revenue measures
This year, Rev. Dr Owusu-Amoah said, a number of policy measures and initiatives would be rolled out to further enhance revenue mobilisation efforts.
The measures, he said, included the implementation of the 2.5 per cent increase in the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate, the reduction in the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) rate to one per cent to encourage compliance and the resumption of the collection of Vehicle Income Tax (VIT).
Others were the resumption of collection of the tax stamp, complete reversal of the discount of import values of general goods and home delivery values of vehicles and partnering metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) in the collection of property rates, he added.
The Commissioner-General indicated that those revenue measures would go a long way to complement efforts in achieving the authority’s goals.
He urged all staff to put in extra effort to ensure that the implementation of the new revenue measures took off smoothly.
“Let all staff continue to approach their work with a great sense of commitment and enthusiasm, so that collectively we can achieve the target we have set for ourselves,” Rev. Dr Owusu-Amoah stressed.
