The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) says it cannot determine the extent of damage caused by fire that gutted the Head Office Annex of the GRA along the Ring Road Central (Kwame Nkrumah Circle) on December 1, 2019.
The second floor of the building was completely ravaged by fire leading to some losses of office devices.
But according to the Acting Commissioner General of the GRA, Mr Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, GRA was awaiting report from the Ghana National Fire Service to determine the next line of action with regard to that building.
Briefing the media on the aftermath of the fire disaster, the Acting Commissioner General said GRA has a backup system, so there would be no loss of data or money.
Operations to smoothly continue
To ensure smooth running of operations, he said staff from the affected offices have been redeployed to other GRA offices to enable them work effectively and also make it convenient for taxpayers of the Large Taxpayer Office (LTO) and Adabraka Medium Taxpayer office (MTO) to transact business with the Authority.
Short term measures
He also said that Large Taxpayers who transact their business at the LTO can now transact business at the Kinbu Sub LTO, Kaneshie MTO, Osu MTO, Legon MTO and Tema MTO until further notice.
For Taxpayers of the Adabraka MTO, he indicated that they are to transact their business at the Adabraka Small Taxpayer Office located near the Adabraka Police station.
Psychological support
Mr Owusu-Amoah disclosed that the Authority has also put in measures to help the affected staff in dealing with the loss suffered by offering them counselling and psychological support.
Setbacks
According to the Acting Commissioner-General, GRA has rather suffered a setback at a critical period in revenue mobilization drive.
The Authority, he said, was however focused and poised to working hard to attain the needed revenue for national development.
2019 target achievable
Mr. Owusu-Amoah expressed confidence in GRA’s ability to achieve its set revenue target for the year 2019.
The revenue target for 2019 was pegged at GH¢45 billion and as at end of November, 2019, an amount of GH¢37 billion had been obtained.
The Acting Commissioner General, said that there’s a high possibility the Authority would achieve its targets by end of the year.
Explaining the measures set out to meet the remainder of the target, Mr Owusu-Amoah said GRA has scheduled a number of revenue collection exercises to embark on before the year ends and cautioned that tax defaulters and evaders would be prosecuted if found flouting tax regulations.
He further admonished business persons to voluntarily fulfil their tax obligations or risk being taken through the full rigours of the law.
“The message is clear if you violate the laws, not only will we ensure that you pay but if we identify that it’s fraudulent, we will also prosecute you. It even goes to people who even work in these enterprises where young tellers are forced to forge the documents, we’ll not only arrest the proprietor of the enterprise but also the employees who connive with their employers to evade the tax,” he said.
Source: thefinderonline.com