The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is targeting to collect GH¢146 billion revenue this year.
This represents a 37.73 per cent increase in the GH¢106 billion collected in 2023.
As part of efforts to ensure the realisation of the target, Commissioner General of GRA, Rev. Amishaddai Owusu – Amoah, said the Authority was employing international best practices, including customer-centred services, to promote tax compliance in addition to the deployment of new technologies.
He was speaking in Accra yesterday at this year’s Tax Customer Experience Conference organised by the GRA.
The event was on the theme “Building a Growth-Friendly Tax Environment”.
“I want to emphasise the importance of a customer-centric approach in our dealings with our taxpayers. It is crucial that as managers we encourage our staff to remain professional at all times when dealing with taxpayers and colleagues.
This approach together with employing technology to simplify our processes and procedures among others will go a long way in improving GRAs relationship with taxpayers and fostering voluntary tax compliance,” Rev. Dr Owusu-Amoah stated.
He said in an era of rapid technological advancement and evolving customer expectation, there was the need for “agility and innovation” for tax administrators in order to stay relevant and achieve their mandate.
This, he explained, was the reason for the number of strides that had been made in the recent past by GRA to ensure that digitalisation was employed to ensure that taxpayers have a seamless, efficient and effective means of transacting tax business.
In a statement read on his behalf, Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, said it was important for GRA to ensure that it was building a growth-friendly tax environment as it was crucial in voluntary tax compliance, among others, ultimately leading to economic expansion.
The ministry, as the driving force behind the GRA, he said, was committed to supporting initiatives that prioritise customer experience and enhance voluntary compliance.
He noted that the automation of a number of processes and procedures, the recent introduction of the Public Financial Management for Service Delivery (PFM4SD) project and improved tax education among others were improving service standards.
Mr Ofori-Atta said the ministry had developed policies and facilitated legislations aimed at simplifying tax payment processes.
Dr Brago Antwi-Agyei, Head of the Customer Experience Unit, GRA, said the team undertook key initiatives, including the development of a service charter which had been reviewed and would be released this year, set up a call centre, engaging staff and developing a customer journey mapping to help identify the needs of customers for service improvement.
This year, she said, the unit was working on data driven customer service initiatives and the setting up of a multi-channel contact centre that would serve as a customer experience solution that integrates multiple communication tools.
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS