The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has announced that it exceeded its mid-year revenue target for 2024. As of 30 June 2024, the GRA had collected GHC68.49 billion, surpassing its target of GHC67.9 billion. At a media briefing in Accra, the Commissioner- General of GRA, Ms Julie Essiam lauded the Authority's performance amid challenges. 'With the commitment of our outstanding staff, I'm happy to announce that as of June this year, the GRA collected a total of GHC68.49 billion against a half-year budget of GHC67.9 billion, thereby exceeding the cumulative mid-year target by GHS138.6 million, which represents a 0.2% increase,' Ms Essiam announced. 'This achievement represents a nominal growth of 37.6% over the same period last year. Specifically, for the month of June, the devoted staff of GRA outperformed and exceeded the revenue target by an exceptional 21.2% - a significant increase in a single month,' Commissioner-General Essiam announced. She detailed the monthly performance, highlighting the initial c hallenges in meeting the targets in the first three months to March. However, there was a turnaround from April, culminating a recovery began in April in the remarkable 21.2% in June. Ms Essiam said very much aware of the impact of an election year and the headwinds that trend such a period, the leadership team designed and agreed a very focused 90-day plan to ensure and be strategically deliberate in turning the tide of a negative first quarter. 'First, actualizing very specific key revenue measures, focusing on staff welfare, changing the face of the GRA by moving from an enforcement approach to a very more collaborative approach,' she said. Stakeholder engagement as well by focusing really on our key stakeholder, taxpayers, as partners. A key component of the 90-day plan on revenue was the rollout of our flagship electronic VAT invoicing system, which was successfully transitioned into the first phase registration of the top 600 taxpayers, accounting for 80% of VAT contributions. 'We are happy to rep ort that we exceeded the target of 600 and onboarded 614 taxpayers as of June 30th, and we congratulate the DTRD team,' she said. She said the VAT initiative was a very important revenue enabler, as it would potentially ensure real-time data on taxpayers, in particular retailers, adding that the strong momentum will keep us on track to migrate about additional 4,000 taxpayers on the VAT invoicing platform. The expected results are a streamlined and transparent VAT regime with a subsequent increase in revenue. Equally important, is the special voluntary disclosure programme which was successfully rolled out and has ensured that resident individuals, and entities that earn incomes in Ghana voluntarily disclose any previously undisclosed financial accounts or incomes abroad. Ms Essiam said the GRA was able to rope in previously unregistered taxpayers, registering 176,524 taxpayers as against the goal of 144,000 taxpayers. Secondly, our strategic plan has also enabled key deliverables aimed at transitioning GRA from an enforcement-centered approach to a collaborative partner approach. In August, the Commissioner Support Services will be conducting training programmes in customer experience approaches and ethical behaviours, all aimed at improving relationships with our taxpayers. On both customs and domestic tax front, the GRA would continue to pursue the agreed tax measures announced in the 2024 fiscal year budget. The Commissioner-General lauded the business community and all stakeholders for their support and called for continued commitment to end the year on a positive note. Source: Ghana News Agency