March and April missed revenue targets before ICUMS was deployed in June – GRA

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has stated that the deployment of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) is not responsible for the variance in revenue realised at Tema Collection in June 2020.

According to the authority, March and April 2020 all recorded similar variance at Tema Collection when ICUMS had not even been deployed.

A statement signed by Mrs Florence Asante, Assistant Commissioner, Communication, and Head of Public Affairs of GRA, blamed the situation on ’Stretched target’.

She explained that in March 2020, the variance was about GH?400 million.

She noted that in April, the Tema Collection had a target of GH¢779.44 million but collected GH¢483.16 million, a variance of 38.01 percent.

In June, she said the target was GH¢1 billion (GH¢1,006.88 million), but GH¢553.57 million was realised, representing a variance of 45.02 percent.

She stated that June was not the first time within the year that a variance of about GH¢400 million had been recorded.

Consequently, she refuted assertions that the Tema Collection of the Customs Division had failed to meet its revenue target by 45 percent due to the deployment of ICUMS.

Mrs Asante said the Tema Collection accounted for over 70 percent of the total revenue target for the Customs Division, which translated into a 'Stretched target' of GH¢1.3 billion for the collection for 2020.

She noted that the figure was distributed monthly using the previous year's performance subject to prevailing economic measures.

She argued that the fact that the 'Stretched target' was not achieved does not in any way point to the deployment of ICUMS being a factor in the Tema June 2020 revenue collection.

The Head of Public Affairs of GRA said the Customs Division on the average collected GH¢942 million monthly and the average three months run rate for Tema Collection for 2020 was GH¢574.8 million.

She stated that the figure compares with the June performance of Tema Collection of GH¢554 million and did not show any significant difference in the collection.

Mrs Asante stressed that the performance also clearly refuted the claim that the deployment of ICUMS at the ports in June 2020 had resulted in revenue shortfalls for June.

“The revenue figures and the conclusions drawn from these figures by sections of the media are based on 'Stretched targets' that are provided to all offices, including the Tema Collection, to motivate staff to perform optimally.

“Stretched targets are targets that go slightly beyond the budget figures and encourage staff to achieve more. It is, therefore, misleading to compare actual performance with the 'Stretched targets' and not actual budget figures to draw conclusions when GRA's performance is assessed based on the actual budget figure”, she added.

Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance, in the mid-year budget, said the overall customs performance for the half-year was below target.

Mrs Asante explained that this performance could be attributed primarily to the closure of the country's borders from March 27, 2020 and restrictions placed on the movement of persons, resulting in a slowdown in port-related activities, owing to the uncertainties associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Even though the mid-year revenue target was missed owing to prevailing economic circumstances, pragmatic initiatives are being put in place to attain, if not exceed, the annual target by close of the year.

“The trend in revenues from the ports was a reflection of the worldwide trend of a decline in cargo movements owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ghana is not an exception,” she said.

Mrs Asante said GRA would not lose focus of its core mandate of mobilising revenue for national development, especially in these times.

“We also remain committed to constantly monitoring revenue performance at the ports whilst making efforts to resolve all the initial challenges in the deployment of ICUMS at our ports,” she added.