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GRA Targets Over Gh¢40bn in 2018

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is targeting tax revenue of over Gh¢40 billion next year.

According to the Commissioner-General of the authority, Emmanuel Kofi Nti, GRA is currently in a discussion with the Ministry of Finance to come out with the actual target for 2018.

“I work on the instruction of the policy makers and so we are collaborating and interacting. We are looking at the numbers now and what we are looking at is well above Gh¢40 billion”, he hinted.

He added that GRA is focused on identifying the location of tax payers in order to exceed its Gh¢34 billion target this year.

Mr. Kofi Nti disclosed this to the media at the opening of the Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators (CATA) 38th Annual Technical Conference held in Accra on Monday.

The conference, dubbed ‘Leveraging Technology to enhance Revenue Administrations’, aims at creating the right conditions for the flourishing of ideas, and brings together a rich diversity of countries in terms of culture, tradition and different stages of economic development.

In a speech read on his behalf, President Akuffo Addo said developing countries stand the risk of undermining the development of their countries if they continue to rely on aid from developed countries.

He noted that countries that rely on aid from developed countries could lose the trust and confidence of their people if they are not able to mobilize enough to meet their expectations.

“That is why since assuming office in January 2017, I have championed a policy of Ghana beyond aid. I believe it is time developed countries relied as much as possible on domestic revenue mobilization to fund their development agenda”, he stressed.

According to him, government recognizes the challenge GRA faces in its attempt to cast the tax net wider to embrace as many operators as possible, especially from the informal sector.

He emphasized that in finding a solution to this challenge, government has already leveraged technology to introduce a digital property address and will soon introduce a national identity card system.

“We believe that these, among other measures, will help formalize the economy and help the tax administration body to easily locate businesses and potential taxpayers for registration and delivery of assessments”, he stressed.

He said government will continue to give the needed support and encouragement to GRA to adopt the necessary technological innovations to enable it deliver its goods.

Source: Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum

 

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