The Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) have set a tax target of GH¢146billion for the 2024 fiscal year.
This year’s amount represents a 37.7 percent increase from the GH¢106billion collected in the 2023 operational year.
GRA’s Commissioner-General Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, who disclosed this to the B&FT at the authority’s Customer Experience Conference in Accra, said key measures to meet the target this year is to identify barriers to voluntary compliance and deepening the role of technology to improve tax compliance.
He said the conference was meant to help the GRA to facilitate knowledge-sharing and collaboration among tax professionals, policy-makers, researchers and international organisations in the area of service delivery in tax collection.
Themed ‘Building a Growth-Friendly Tax Environment’, Dr. Owusu-Amoah said the conference was apt, especially as the world evolves and institutions focus on the provision of excellent tax collection through collaborations with stakeholders and customers.
In recent years, the GRA has made a number of strides in ensuring that digital tools are deployed for taxpayers to have seamless, efficient and effective means of transacting tax business.
For instance, findings of a survey conducted by Geopoll in 2022 with support from one of GRA’s donor partners, the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), shows that the authority’s overall satisfaction in dealing with its customers was generally high at 71 percent.
The survey, according to the Commissioner-General, was aimed, among others, at understanding the needs of taxpayers.
Director of Revenue Policy Division at the Finance Ministry, George Winful, who represented sector minister Ken Ofori Atta, said the ministry stands resolute in its commitment to support the GRA in achieving its mission of mobilising revenue for national development in a transparent and effective manner.
He said the target for this year is achievable, adding: “We need to quickly roll-up our sleeves and hit the ground running once again. Let us get to work with all the determination and zeal, armed with the requisite strategies to achieve the target”.
Key stakeholders at the conference included the Ghana Union of Trade Associations (GUTA), Deloitte and Touch, Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Ghana Hotels Association, Food and Beverage Association of Ghana, Ghana National Chamber of Commerce, Importers and Exporters Association.
The rest are the Association of Real Estate Brokers, Ghana Medical Association, Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders, Ghana Telecoms Chamber, Ghana Integrity Initiative, and external donor partners.
