The Ghana Revenue Authority has been established to replace the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB) and merge the three Revenue Agencies; Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Value Added Tax Service (VATS). The current state of revenue administration in Ghana viewed against modern trends call for integration and modernization. This has become necessary because an integrated revenue administration will ensure lower administrative cost, higher productivity and customer-centred service delivery. Preparatory activities have already begun towards the integration.
The strategy for achieving the integration and modernization involves five main programmes:
- Revenue Integration programme
- Customer Service delivery
- Physical Infrastructure
- Human resource and organizational development
- Unified Information Technology and Management Information System
The Project for achieving full authority status shall be carried out in three phases.
Phase One:
This shall involve:
- Institutional framework: - SC, PMU, THEMATIC WORKING GROUPS, TEAM MEMBERS.
- Legal framework:- GRA Law.
- Policy Initiatives:- Simplification of tax laws
- Integration of Domestic tax
- Piloting the Large Taxpayer Office (LTO) Project: - Business Process Re-engineering, Information Technology (IT), Human Resource (HR), FINANCE, BUDGET issues.
- Change Management and Communication Strategy: Identifying change managers, communication strategy
- IT and HR skills audit and training.
- Review of Customs processes.
- Tax payer Assistance Services
- Integrity Matters
Phase Two:
This shall involve:
- Segmentation of taxpayers into Medium Tax Office (MTO), Small Tax Office (STO)
- Full integration of the LTO, MTO and STO’s.
- Codification of tax laws
- Full deployment of IT.
- Integration of functions. - Finance, HR, RPM, IT.
- Infrastructure Management and deployment
- Review of Customs Preventive Service
- Customer Service Delivery Programme.
Phase Three:
This shall involve:
- Consolidation of integration process
- Provision of additional infrastructure
- Review of effectiveness.
- Review of Non- Tax Revenue.
- Tax Payer Education
- Review of Change Management and Communication Plan.