Let’s simplify the filing processes for taxpayers – GRA

Mr Amishaddai Owusu-Amoah, the Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), has called on stakeholders in revenue mobilsation to simplify the tax filing processes and procedures for taxpayers.

“If we simplify, trade revenues will be enhanced, and this will ensure more import and export of commodities and also paying of taxes will be done voluntarily,” he noted.

He, therefore, urged institutions under the GRA to critically examine their activities to ensure a more friendly system that helped in the collection of taxes.

Speaking at the 2022 GRA Customs Division’s Management Retreat in Kumasi, Mr Owusu-Amoah indicated that some of those complicated procedures created gaps, which rendered tax filing and revenue mobilisation counterproductive.

“Even though the GRA has created detailed platforms for payment of taxes, there are still people that had challenges as far as filing taxes was concerned, therefore it is important to find ways of simplifying it,” he said.

He said the importance of tax filing simplification could not be overemphasised in all aspects of taxes, cutting across preventive, trade facilitation and revenue mobilisation.

The GRA Commissioner General charged the Customs Division and the Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DRTD) to look for opportunities in finding individuals to bring in high value transactions, equipment or cars that generated the necessary revenue.

Touching on monitoring, he advised the officers to constantly scrutinise and find effective ways of improving on evaluations to get the accurate values for a payer item under consideration.

He expressed confidence that the GRA would meet its GH₵80.2 billion revenue mobilisation target for 2022 if the officers synergised energies to ensure productive work.

Colonel (Rtd) Kwadwo Damoah, the Commissioner of Customs, said Ghana needed a lot of social infrastructure and that could only happen when officers played their role effectively in revenue mobilisation.

The Customs Division was, therefore, partnering the DRTD and linking their systems to achieve their set goals, he said.

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