The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has made known its intentions to exceed its original revenue target for 2020 on the back of certain measures put in place by the Authority.
Original revenue target for the revenue mobilization body per the 2020 Budget Statement was Ghs 47.2 billion, but was revised downwards to Ghs 42.7 in the 2020 Mid-year Budget Review due to the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on businesses thereby affecting tax payments to the GRA.
GRA for the half year of 2020 failed to meet its revenue target of Ghs 21.4 billion, as the statutory tax collection body was able to rake in some Ghs 19.95 billion representing a shortfall of 6.9 per cent.
But speaking at a media engagement on Friday, September 11, 2020, Acting Commissioner-General of the GRA, Rev. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah noted that his outfit is working hard to over-achieve its revenue target for the year despite the failure to achieve its mid-year target.
According to him, the Authority has set for itself a challenge of raking in Ghs 55 billion for the country by end of the year, noting that the Authority will be rolling out some policies and measures to ensure the attainment of the Ghs 55 billion target.
“As an Authority, we cannot continue to do business as usual, thus, we have put in place a number of measures to ensure that we attain our 2020 revenue target of Ghs 42.7 billion. We are determined as an organization to collectively put our shoulders to the wheel as we roll out some policies to achieve our ‘challenge’ target of Ghs 55 billion in these ‘not normal times,” he said at the media engagement.
Speaking further, the Acting Commissioner-General noted that the Authority will leverage on technology and digitized operating platform in achieving its revenue target for the year, making particular reference to the deployment of the Integrated Tax Application and Processing System (ITaPS) – which is only in its second phase – on ghana.gov platform that allows taxpayers file returns and make payments online.
