The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning is to procure 250 vehicles this year for the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Dr Kwabena Duffour, the sector Minister, said this in a speech read on his behalf at GRA management retreat in Koforidua on Friday.

The three-day programme is under the Theme “Executing the strategic and modernization plans 2012-2014, the way forward”.

Dr Duffour said he was not oblivious of the challenges facing the GRA in revenue mobilization such as inadequate logistics, regular cash flow and infrastructure deficits and assured that the Ministry would collaborate with the GRA board and top management to address these issues.

He commended the GRA for exceeding the 2011 revenue target by as much as 15.4 percent but added that it should explore more innovative avenues to widen the tax net to cover more people, especially those in the informal sector.

“You will agree with me that the contribution of the informal sector operators to tax collection is not anything to write home about and there is therefore the need to adopt appropriate measures to handle this segment of the population”.

Dr Duffour urged the management of the GRA to apply the tax laws firmly but fairly to recalcitrant taxpayers.

Mr George Blankson, Commissioner General, GRA, said the retreat was to assess their mobilization efforts in 2011 and together consider issues and activities that would move the Authority forward in 2012 focusing on how best to implement the GRA three-year strategic and modernization plans for 2012 to 2014.

“For any modern organization, assessing past performances and charting a strategic path for the years ahead is a healthy exercise if the organization is not to repeat the mistakes of the past and slide down in its performance,” he said.

Mr Blankson said the GRA was tasked to collect tax revenue of GHC 7,544.66 million for 2011 but at the end of that year, it had collected GHC 8,706.39 million, giving a positive variance of 15.4 percent.

He said the 2011 collection was 46.6 percent over the actual collection for 2010.

“Giving this performance, the country’s tax revenue to GDP ratio, which collapsed to 12.7% in the wake of the re-basing in 2010 grew to 15.9 percent in 2011”.

Mr Blankson said the GRA had been tasked to collect GHC 11,166.57 for 2012 for the national treasury, which is 28.3% over and above the 2011 actual collection.

He said even though the margin is huge, the attainment of the target was not beyond the capabilities of the GRA, given the caliber of staff and their dedication and commitment to duty.