The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has commissioned an ultra-modern two-story building Information Technology Training Centre at Tema, financed by KFW German Bank for Development.
The IT Centre project was started in 2021 as part of GRA’s vision to modernise tax payment issues such as compliance and digitalisation.
The commissioning was also used to open a three-day service enhancement training for 60 front-line workers of the GRA, mostly drawn from the Customs Division and the Domestic Tax Unit.
The training was done in partnership with development partners such as the UK Government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
During the commissioning ceremony, Dr. Alex Apaabeng, the Deputy Finance Minister, said the GRA, under the Ministry, wanted to adopt a customer-led approach in engaging their clients, noting that the world has moved, and they must also move towards that.
According to him, in their quest to enhance service delivery, the GRA has sought and secured support from key partners such as the World Bank and the PFW for service delivery, geared towards enhancing the taxpayer experience.
He noted that the training formed a special opportunity for the Authority to upgrade its already specialised skills to enhance taxpayer experience, stating his understanding of the complexities surrounding the whole journey of tax compliance as a tax expert.
“When we are equipped to understand these things, that’s when we are able to translate it into a good tax-payer experience to enhance our service. Taxpaying is a very difficult task, but once the taxpayer is educated, feels respected, and is able to assess what their taxes are used for, then voluntary compliance is enhanced, and I believe this very training will help us achieve that,” the Deputy Finance Minister said.
Dr. Ampaabeng explained that enhanced voluntary compliance reduces the cost both for the tax enforcement company and to the taxpayer on the cost of compliance, stating that the training would equip the staff with the needed skills to deliver.
To this end, he urged the front-line staff of the GRA professional in their relationships and engagement with the customers, as it has a profound impact on their decision to comply or not to comply.
The Deputy Finance Minister said Ghana’s tax to GDP (gross domestic product) of 14 percent, even though commendable looking at the circumstances in which the authority operates, the country still had a long way to go as a middle-income economy, as other African countries were doing around 20-21 percent.
In her remarks, the Commissioner-General of GRA, Ms Julie Essiam, said the training was to elevate the professionalism of the staff to meet the authority’s fourth strategic plan of excellence in service delivery to the taxpayers.
She noted that the notion of customer centricity had taken over the mantra of tax authorities, including the USA. She said the training would therefore serve as the cornerstone anchoring the GRA’s journey in its vision to change the face of the GRA by adopting a collaborative approach in its engagements with the taxpayers.
“It’s not only about imparting knowledge but also embedding the cultural excellence that will sound through every layer of the GRA because the effectiveness of the tax system hinges loudly on those that we service,” she added.
For Elorm Segbefia, Lead Advisor and Senior Programme Manager for the Ghana Revenue Programme by the UK Government, his outfit under the development programme was working with the GRA on two strands of tax policy and revenue administration.
He explained that it is aimed at helping GRA to become customer-centric, where it would be able to use customer behavioural analytics to be ahead of the customers to give them a good experience.
He added that they expected to see a better result in the GRA customer survey they would conduct, showing an improvement in their service delivery, which would translate into voluntary tax payment and an increase in revenue generation.
Source: GNA