GRA on course to achieving GH¢146 billion tax target

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has said it is well on course to achieving this year’s tax target of GH¢146billion, considering key successes recorded in the Authority’s mid-year collection performance.

Briefing the media on the Authority’s mid-year 2024 performance, GRA Commissioner-General Julie Essiam said a total of GH¢68.49billion against a half year budget of GH¢67.9billion has so far been collected.

This, she said, exceeded the cumulative mid-year target by GH¢138.6million, which represents a 0.2 percent increase.

“It is instructive to note that the Authority exceeded its mid-year target, an achievement which represents a nominal growth of 37.6 percent over the same period of last year.”

Equally, the GRA also outperformed and exceeded its monthly target for June by an exceptional 21.2 percent, lauding it as a significant increase in a single month.

“All of these were achieved against the headwinds of a very difficult first quarter. The ensuing performance after the first quarter is a testament of the Authority’s commitment and resilience to deliver the overall target by year-end” Ms. Essiam said.

Indeed, the Authority fell below its January target by 12.3 percent with a shortfall of 6.3 percent in February, as March suffered a similar trend with an increased negative deviation of 12.7 percent.

However, Ms. Essiam disclosed that GRA started a journey of rebound in April when the monthly target was exceeded by 1.9 percent, then exceeded again in May by 1.4 percent.

Subsequently, the significant achievement of a 21.2 percent positive increase in June was recorded, which according to the Commissioner-General supported the turnaround to achieve GRA’s positive half-year performance target.

“The first quarter difficulties empowered leadership to design a 90-day plan to ensure we were strategically focused and very deliberate in turning the tides of a negative first quarter,” Ms Essiam said.

Other key successes chalked up

A key component of the 90-day plan according to the Commissioner General, led to 80 percent VAT contributions for a targeted 600 companies. This accordingly transitioned into the first phase of registration.

That target, the GRA said, was exceeded as 614 companies were onboarded as of June 30 by the Domestic Tax Revenue Division of the Authority.

The Authority , according to the Commissioner-General, has also registered 176, 524 new taxpayers against a 2024 annual target of 144,000.

“All these gains will help to achieve our goal of GH¢146billion and ultimately achieve a tax-to-GDP ratio of 20 percent by the end of year 2027,” the C-G said.