The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) finished 2022 by collecting more taxes than it had hoped to.

Rev. Dr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, Commissioner-General of the GRA, said that the GRA collected ¢3.6 billion more than the 2022 objective.

The nominal rise over the tax revenue gathered in the fiscal year 2021 for this is 31.5 percent.

The GRA was expected to earn $¢80.3 billion for the 2022 budget.

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, however, lowered the aim downward in the Mid-Year Budget Review to ¢71.94 billion, a decrease of ¢8.36 billion.

The GRA reported nominal growth of 28.9% and 38.4% for domestic tax collections and customs revenue, respectively.

In contrast to the target of ¢51.75 billion, the total tax revenue collected by the Domestic Tax Revenue Division in 2022 was ¢53.28 billion, a positive divergence of ¢1.53 billion (3%).

Whilst the Customs Division collected ¢22.26 billion as against a target of ¢20.20 billion also exceeding the target by ¢2.06 billion.

Reasons for tax mobilized

Providing some explanations, Rev. Owusu-Amoah said that the target was achieved mainly as a result of rigorous efforts made by the staff of the GRA as well as some new measures which brought about transparency and efficiency in tax administration.

He also linked the performance to enhance revenue mobilization efforts introduced by the GRA.

“The GRA rolled out some initiatives which included the implementation of the 2.5 percent increase in the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate, Reduction in the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) rate to 1% and resumption of collection of Vehicle Income Tax (VIT)”.

The rest are Resumption of collection of Tax Stamp, Complete reversal of the discount of import values of general goods & Home Delivery Values of vehicles and Partnering the MMDAs in the collection of property rates.

The Commissioner General said that these revenue measures will go a long way to complement the authority’s efforts in achieving the revenue target for 2023.