Dumsor Killing Businesses -GRA  

THE GHANA Revenue Authority (GRA) has partly blamed the erratic power supply in the country, popularly called 'Dumsor,' which is crippling businesses and causing layoffs, for contributing to the GRA's failure to achieve its revenue collection target for 2014.

The Commissioner General of the GRA, George Blankson, speaking at the 2015 Management Retreat of the GRA in Kumasi, also bemoaned the sharp drop in prices of minerals such as gold on the world market, faulting it for the GRA's 2.7% shortfall in its revenue target.

'The year 2014 witnessed a precipitous fall in the prices of minerals on the world market, especially gold, leading to layoff of workers which negatively affected PAYE, Royal and Corporate Tax payments,' he said in Kumasi on Thursday.

'The energy crisis with its attendant low levels of production and job cuts, the reduction in the volume of imports… and the deferment of the implementation of VAT on fee-based financial services are all factors that became a drag on revenue collection in 2014.'

Despite failing to achieve its revenue collection target, Mr Blankson stressed that the GRA made remarkable strides in reforming procedures, building capacity and infrastructure for enhanced efficiency in revenue collection, noting that he was hopeful that the GRA would achieve its revenue collection target of GH¢21.98 billion in 2015.

'Even though the year is very young, there appears to be every indication that 2015 holds brighter prospects for the GRA in terms of revenue collection,' Mr Blankson noted, announcing that the recruitment drive initiated last year to revamp the GRA's human resource would be continued in 2015.

'The tax policy environment in 2015 is more favourable to revenue enhancement than it has ever been. The introduction of the Special Petroleum Tax, implementation of VAT on fee-based financial services and several other revenue protection measures introduced in 2014 and 2015 create a favourable environment for enhanced revenue collection,' he noted.

The event which was under the theme, 'GRA 2 nd  Strategic Plan 2015-2017: Implementation at the Operational Level,' was aimed at helping the GRA to assess its performance for 2014 and also strategise properly so that it would be able to achieve its set targets for this year.

Minister of Finance Seth Tekper, who was the special guest of honour, admitted that Ghana faced severe economic challenges in 2014, adding that the depreciation of the Cedi against international currencies, among other challenges, affected the revenue collection of the GRA.

He charged the leadership of the GRA to make its staff welfare its top priority, pointing out that it would go a long way to motivate the GRA's staff to work harder in order to achieve its set target for 2015. He announced that the green light had been given for the payment of bonuses due GRA staff.

Seth Tekper also urged the GRA to intensify public education about the need for them to pay their taxes to help the government to embark on developmental projects, lamenting that due to lack of education some people tend not to understand the need to pay tax.

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Samuel Sarpong, stressed the need for GRA staff to unite and work to collect the needed revenue so as to help government initiate developmental programmes and projects which the entire country would benefit from.

Ralph Tuffuor, Board Chairman of GRA, disclosed that as a way to motivate staff of the GRA to work effectively, the GRA board had recommended that the Ministry of Finance paid the bonuses due GRA's staff, lamenting that for the second year in a row the GRA failed to achieve its revenue collection target.

 FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi.