…As GRA’s Reforms Moves into Hi-tech

By Latifah Funke Ibrahim

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) as part of its ongoing e-Gov. Project has partnered with the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) in order to have easier access to data on their clients, whose businesses are registered with the RGD.
The partnership provides GRA better access to RGD’s electronic database to ensure faster and easier tracking and monitoring of businesses for tax purposes and general interactions.

“In this connection, a re-registration of existing taxpayers and registration of new taxpayers for the purpose of getting new TIN (Tax Identification Number) is underway,” the Commissioner of the Support Services Division, GRA, Mr. Anthony Minlah said.
Mr. Minlah said this while delivering the welcome address at a day’s seminar for journalists on GRA’s ongoing registration and re-registration exercise in Accra on Thursday, November 24, 2011.
Mr. Minlah highlighted other aspects of GRA’s transformation, including some of the factors that led to the formation of the Authority, elements of the Authority, challenges as well as the processes that the authority had gone through and its yet to go through to ensure a successful integration.
He explained that the Ghana Revenue Act 2009 (Act 791), passed in December 2009 was to establish the GRA as the sole body to regulate and handle the administration of taxes and customs duties in Ghana, replacing the three erstwhile revenue agencies - Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Value Added Tax (VAT) and the overall regulatory body, Revenue Agency Governing Board (RAGB).
He said that the previous revenue mobilization and regulatory agencies was saddled with many difficulties hence the need to establish a modernized revenue authority, as well as meeting the approved international practices relating to national revenue administration.
Mr. Minlah stated that with the passage of the law, CEPS, IRS, VAT and RAGB no longer existed as separate institutions, but rather “….the administration of taxes and customs duties in Ghana has therefore been subsumed under one institution called the Ghana Revenue Authority.”
The Commissioner mentioned integration and modernization of the management of tax and customs, and the merger of IRS and VATS into a functional domestic tax operations as some of the main features of the reformed authority, adding “this change is expected to help create a more vibrant, efficient and effective tax administration for mobilization of revenue for national development.”
Under the GRA, a new integrated operations unit, Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD) has been introduced to replace the former IRS and VAT, to manage domestic taxes, while the operations and preventive units of the former CEPS is now the Customs Division (CD).
The GRA Commissioner for SSD elaborated that all the management support functions that used to be performed under CEPS, IRS, VAT and RAGB including finance, administration, human resource, technology and research planning and monitoring had been merged to form the Support Services Division (SSD).
He noted that earlier attempts to capture the information to assist tax assessment had been problematic, and highlighted the review of GRA’s business processes and procedures as an essential element of the reform to enhance their service delivery to taxpayers.
Under the DTRD, GRA has developed a new criteria segmenting local taxpayers, into three categories of: Large Taxpayers, which comprise taxpayers with annual turnovers of GHC5,000,000 and above, Medium Taxpayers for businesses with annual turnover exceeding GHC90,000.00 but below GHC5,000,000 and the Small Taxpayers, which covers taxpayers with annual turnovers of GHC90,000.00 and below.
“As part of the review of procedures and processes, a new computerized software, the Total Revenue Integrated Processing System (TRIPS) has been introduced to administer taxes by the DTRD,” he announced.
The TRIPS, a module for the registration and re-registration exercise was explained as the integrated revenue information system meant to provide a platform for the administration of all domestic taxes under the e-Gov. Project.
Mr. Sampson Armah Laryea, Deputy Commissioner for the Modernization Programme Office, speaking on the status of the integration and modernization process, noted that governments across the world had realized the need for a unified revenue management to create synergy in tax collection and administration, citing countries like Australia, South Africa, Kenya and nearby Liberia, who have all embarked on reforms in revenue administration in conformity with international standards.
He said the GRA was committed to not only meeting their reform target by 2014, but also help raise GDP from the current 13.6% to above the sub-regional level of over 18%, attain efficiency of 15% on tax growth and improve voluntary compliance to 80% by 2014.
Mr. Paul Kwakye, Project Manager of Gegov, GRA, later emphasized on the need for all businesses to register and get a new TIN in order to fully enjoy the benefits of the services of the reformed GRA.
He said that the GRA was making plans to collaborate with the National Identification Authority (NIA) like it did with the RGD, to electronically have access to data on taxpayers in the informal sector, but until then, their officers would continue to go to their locations to register them.
Credit: thebusinessanalystgh@gmail.com: [A print edition of this article was published in The Business Analyst of Wednesday, November 30 – Tuesday, December 6th, 2011]