Loud Silence Radio & TV’s host of With All Due Respect, Mr. Kevin Taylor has exposed the Ghana Revenue Authority over claims in January 2020 that the authority has exceeded its GHS43 billion tax revenue target for 2019.
According to GRA Board Chairman, Professor Stephen Adei, in an interview with Accra based radio station, Joy FM in January 2020, his outfit did very well in December 2019 by collecting more taxes.
“The target, in general, was about GHS46 billion but you know the government changed the benchmark rate at the port, so, it was revised a little over GHS43 billion, which we have slightly exceeded.”
He added that: “It will interest you to note that in December 2019, we more than met our target in revenue collection; actually, I’m having a board meeting because every day, they have to calibrate. The last time it was about GHS5.6 billion while we were looking for GHS5.0 billion, so, thank God.”
However, the US based Ghanaian investigative journalist on Monday, April 13, 2020 has released an internal Memo of the GRA in which the Commissioner-General stated that the authority will not be able to pay the 15% bonus to its staff because the authority has not met revenue targets set for the authority by the Ministry of Finance.
“The world over, bonuses are paid on profits and/or the achievement of target. Since the original targets set by the Ministry of Finance was not achieved, staff cannot make claims for the 15% of annual basic salary. The Board in consideration of what was achieved therefore allocated 10% as Bonus” – the memo dated April 9, 2020 has said.
This memo according to Kevin Taylor did not only expose the GRA and their January claim of exceeding their revenue targets but also spark anger among the staff who are threatening to go on strike.
