The Ghana Revenue Authority, GRA says the ongoing tax-reforms made it possible for government to exceed its revenue target in the first quarter.

Despite the challenging business environment, government, through the authority grossed about 1 billion cedis more than its targeted revenue in the period under review.

The Finance Minister, Seth Terkper in his presentation on the state of the economy yesterday cited this as a major evidence that the economy was on a path of recovery.

The Commissioner General of the GRA, George Blankson later told Joy Business,  it was all achieved on the back of the tax reforms initiated about 5 years ago.

“We have automated the domestic tax administration so with the introduction of this new platform for administration of taxes, we are able to check the returns better, we are able to track payments, non-payments and also non-compliance is better checked than before” he said.

He further demonstrated how the Taxpayer Identification Number also contributed to the remarkable performance.         

“The introduction of the tax-payer identification number tracks the tax payer at all levels from importation, manufacturing, distribution to the end. In this case it makes it difficult for the taxpayer to evade because when you import so many bags of sugar for manufacturing soft drinks, we use the same identification number at importation which will also be the identification number on which you will account for the soft drinks you produce and if you have distribution outlets the same tax-payer identification number would be used in accounting for the distribution of the products and therefore we are able to track the activities of the tax-payer throughout the production-distribution chain from the beginning to the end and that makes it more difficult for evasion to occur” he concluded.