The Ghana Revenue Authority has called on individuals and organisations who could not fulfill their tax obligations due to the ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic to take advantage of the Penalties and Interest waivers policy to do so.

According to the authority, the Waiver of Penalties and Interest for outstanding debt as of December 31, 2020, under the Penalty and Interest Waiver (Amendment) Act, 2021 (Act 1073) has been extended to June 30, 2022.

Defaulters were expected to complete payments by December 31, 2021. However, speaking on Joy FM's Super Morning Show on Wednesday, March 16, 2022, Assistant Commissioner at the Large Taxpayer Office, GRA, Martin Yamborigya, said these taxpayers have up till end of June, 2022 to meet their tax obligations.

"The window is still open and we still want to encourage all taxpayers to take advantage of it," he said.

Explaining the rationale for this, the Authority stated that this is intended to cushion taxpayers who were largely hit by the ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic, hence, failure to meet their tax obligations.

Mr. Yamborigya's comment was part of discussions on how the Authority (GRA) intends to achieve its target for 2022 as it did last year.

While highlighting a number of measures GRA adopted in reaching the 2021 target, Mr. Yamborigya emphasised that the Penalty and Interest waiver was instrumental in the achievement. According to him, the authority was able to mobilise over GH₵400 million cedis through this approach.

"It really worked for us last year. People took advantage of it and paid their arrears. And all those who have tax arrears up to December, 2020 will be given the waiver if they are able to pay from now till June, 2022," he said.

He added that defaulters will also be given flexible alternative forms of payment to ensure they have ample time to make payments and get their goods cleared.