Agencies Make Progress In Revenue Collection

The three revenue agencies made a modest improvement in revenue collection in June 2006 by recording ¢2.136 trillion, representing a 22 per cent increase over the ¢1.714 trillion recorded in May 2006.

The improvement notwithstanding, the June Collection fell short of the target of ¢2.278 trillion, representing a negative variance of 6.2 per cent or a deficit of ¢141.20 billion.

In May, the three agencies, namely, the Internal Revenue service (IRS), the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and the Value Added Tax (VAT) Service, fell short of their target of ¢1.828 trillion by ¢114 billion or a negative variance of 6.2 per cent.

The Executive Secretary of the (RAGB), Mr Harry Owusu, who made this known to the Daily Graphic, said cumulatively, from January to June 2006, the revenue collected stood at ¢10.745 trillion, as against the target of ¢11.671 trillion. That, he said, indicates a shortfall of ¢926 billion or a negative variance of 7.9 per cent.

Mr Owusu, however, pointed out that the performance for the period January to June 2006 exceeded revenue collected for the period January to May 2005, which stood at ¢8.585 trillion against the target of ¢9.394 trillion representing a deficit of 808.8 billion or a negative variance of 8.6 per cent.

He said the marginal improvement in revenue collection was an indication that the revenue enhancement measure introduced between April and May 2006 had begun to pay off.

The measures include the establishment of the Revenue Protection Unit to patrol the major import routes to check smuggling, tax education programmes, enforcement measures introduced by the IRS and the VAT Service and the tax amnesty granted by the government from January to June 2006.

Mr Owusu expressed optimism that if those measures were sustained and effectively monitored, they would go a long way to help the revenue agencies to not only attain the end-of –year targets but also exceed it.