The Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD) of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has so far mobilised more than GH¢10 billion from tax collection through the deployment of the Total Revenue Integrated Processing System (TRIPS).

This is in spite of the fact that the nationwide roll-out of the system is still ongoing.

The offices of the DTRD that were already using the TRIPS to administer their taxpayers account for about 84 per cent of all tax revenues of the division.

Following the integration and automation of the process of the DTRD of the GRA, most offices have adopted the TRIPS developed by the Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet) to automate the processes for assessing, filing and paying various domestic tax forms such as Income Tax, PAYE, VAT, Withholding Tax and Gift Tax, among other things.

Awards

Consequently, the release said the GRA and GCNet had decided to introduce an awards scheme to help boost the full migration of all taxpayers onto TRIPS in order to create a uniform platform.

This is expected to encourage offices to accelerate the migration process, amid the realisation that the introduction of the TRIPS roll-out as a main processing system has marked a major milestone in the history of the DTRD of the GRA.

With a sponsored price tag of GH¢25,000 from GCNet to be awarded every quarter to the winning implementing tax office to address logistic constraints, the move would enable the Domestic Tax Revenue Division to take full advantage of the opportunities that the deployment of the TRIPS brings on board in helping to automate the processes for assessing, filing and payment of various domestic taxes.

These came to light during a day’s briefing and training session on the deployment of TRIPS which was jointly organised by GCNet and GRA for officials of the Tax and Customs Divisions.

According to the Commissioner of the DTRD, Mr Kwasi Gyimah Asante, the introduction of competition would encourage hard work and good ethics and lauded GCNet and GRA for introducing the competition and awards scheme.

Mr Gyimah Asante was optimistic the timely resolution of challenges would have significant impact on the turnaround time of the GRA in achieving its mandate in revenue mobilisation.

The General Manager of GCNet, Mr Alwin Hoegerle, noted that the partnership with the Domestic Tax Revenue Division of the GRA aligned with the core mandate of GCNet to improve revenue mobilisation through the deployment of efficient ICT-enabled systems to significantly contribute to national development.

He explained that the training session and the sponsorship of the award scheme was consistent with GCNet’s commitment not only to build capacity and provide logistics support but also to ensure the speedy migration of the TRIPS in all tax offices across the nation to guarantee a speedy processing of tax returns and revenue mobilisation.

Source: graphic.com