The Wa Small Tax Office of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has surpassed its revenue collection benchmark for the first quarter of 2019, out of the GHC8,755,137.63 annual target set for the revenue collection office.

The achievement was ascribed to multiple tax policy initiatives introduced by GRA last year to broaden the country’s tax net system and encourage citizens to honour their tax obligations.

The actions taken included Tax Identification Number registration, Excise Tax Stamp, Tax Amnesty, Cargo Tracking Notes and delinking the national health insurance levy and Ghana Education Trust Fund from Value Added Tax as well as expanding the personal income tax rates for resident individuals.

“The first quarter looks very impressive, because the Small Tax Office (STO) has not only exceeded the quarterly target, but registered an impressive year to date growth of 48.17 percent,” Mr Harruna S. Sachibu, the Head of Wa STO said at a Media gathering at Wa.

However, he added, the Wa STO could not meet its revenue collection target for 2018 due to several challenges including; logistics, shortage of personnel and late implementation of policy initiatives.

“I wish to report that the STO missed its target by 17.43 percent, suffice to say the STO collected GHC6,463,074.00 out of a target of GHC7,827,540.00,” he added.

He urged the media to help to sustain public education and sensitisation on the need for citizens to honour their tax responsibilities and contribute to the national development agenda aiming to improve quality of lives.

Mr Festus Quansah, the Lawra STO Manager, encouraged the public to register for the TIN since it is not only required for tax purposes, but for other important services such as opening of bank account, acquisition of driving licence, filing of case in court and land title registration.

He said the STO has been able to register 5,750 individuals and 93 organisations as at December 2018.

“We encourage all Ghanaians who have not yet registered for the TIN to go to the nearest GRA office to register,” he added: “Ghana beyond aid can only become reality if we all pay taxes”.

He also called on taxpayers to file their annual tax returns and warned that failure to file returns could attract a penalty of GHC500.00 and GHC10.00 for each day that the failure continues.

The Media event enabled staff of GRA to interact and fraternise with news editors to learn more about each other’s mandated responsibilities to enhance cordial working relationship and promote nation building.