Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and its negative impact on businesses, the GRA was able to meet its 2020 revised revenue target.
The Authority was tasked to collect a revised tax revenue target of GH¢42,769.50; as of December 2020, it collected GH¢45,338.69 million exceeding the budget by GH¢2,569.19 million thus, with a positive deviation of 6.0%.
Acting Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority Rev. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah made this known. Consequently, the GRA has set a provisional tax revenue target of GH¢60 billion for 2021.
This represents a 32.3 percent increase over the 2020 actual collection of GH¢45.338 billion. In order to meet this target, the GRA is to introduce new measures like new Excise Tax Stamps with enhanced security features.
However, the old and new stamps would both be in circulation until the old stamps are out of stock. Also, taxpayers will also not spend time in acquiring TINs as they will use the Ghana Card Identity Number for tax purposes.
It is indeed remarkable that the GRA was able to exceed its target even though the economy was struggling as a result of the pandemic. Tax evasion and avoidance has been minimized through IT systems like ICUMS and ITaPS making it convenient for taxpayers to honour their tax obligations.
No doubt, the GRA would continue to carry out enhanced tax education exercises to help inform taxpayers on their rights and obligations but the GRA has to also step-up efforts to tax players in the e-commerce market.
This is an area the GRA must improve the training of its staff to be able maximize revenue collection since e-commerce is a growing segment of the economy. All in all, the GRA has performed remarkably and must be commended for meeting and even, exceeding its target for the year.
Since the President’s vision of a ‘Ghana beyond Aid’ is still in the works, improving domestic revenue mobilization is crucial for its overall achievement. It is our hope that the GRA exceeds its ambitious 2021 target so that the temptation to borrow exponentially will be reduced.
