Support attainment of revenue targets: GRA board entreats workers
The Board of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has indicated its readiness to motivate workers of the authority to ensure that they give of their best towards the attainment of revenue targets.
The authority has been tasked to achieve a revenue target of GH¢80.3 billion for the 2022 fiscal year, a more than 40 per cent increase over the previous year’s target.
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The Board Chairman, Tony Oteng-Gyasi, said at the opening of the eighth national executive council meeting of the GRA Workers Union (GRAWU) last Thursday that workers were the most valuable assets of any organisation and must be valued.
According to him, it was the duty of employers “to value employees by their actions and not by word of mouth".
The three-day meeting took stock of activities of the previous year and projected for the year ahead.
It was on the theme: "The prospects of structural reforms in the GRA on the informal sector in the 2022 fiscal year: The role of labour".
No compromise
Mr Oteng-Gyasi said the board would "not allow the welfare of workers to be compromised in any way", saying it would look for the interest of workers when the management of the authority put proposals before the board.
He commended the GRA labour union for deciding to deliberate and make suggestions on the issues that were for the managers of the organisation.
The board chairman also lauded them for identifying the informal sector, which is a critical sector of the economy, to enhance revenue mobilisation.
"Most of the time, the assumption is that the informal sector is made up of small operators. Informal does not mean small; we are not going after the woman selling on table top.
"There are informal operators who also own big houses and vehicles. It is their duty to pay their fair share of tax and contribute to the development of the nation,” he said.
Appeal
The National Chairman of GRAWU, Mr Dominic Adamnor Nartey, said the revenue target for the year was a challenging task which needed a different approach to achieve.
"We can't do the old things and expect new results. In the past, we taxed the formal sector and left the informal sector. Literature shows it’s difficult to tax the informal sector in every economy,” he said, adding: “It is high time we shifted focus onto the informal sector.”
On behalf of the workers, he pledged the commitment to work hard to achieve the mandate of the GRA and urged politicians to give it the free hand to operate.
Hope
The Deputy Commissioner, Strategy, Research, Policy and Programmes (SRP&P) of the GRA, Dr Charles Addae, who represented the Commissioner General, Rev. Dr Ammisshadai Owusu-Amoah, said the 2022 revenue target of GH¢80.3 billion was the highest in the history of the authority.
He expressed the hope that the target would be achieved with the effort and structures put in place by the authority and the support of the staff.
He said it was unfortunate that the economy was facing challenges, such as the rise in petroleum prices which was affecting all aspects of the economy and also the implementation of the policy on which the revenue target was based.