The 2017 Budget tasked the GRA to collect 33 per cent more revenue this year than it did last year, although the government has abolished and reduced some domestic taxes.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic after a workshop for a section of the media in Accra, the Product Development Manager of GCNet, Mr Carl Sackey, said GCNet, which provides the Ghana Customs Management System, would work with the GRA to satisfy any additional needs of the system to ensure that it exceeded its target.

“We are going to increase validations within the system and work with the (GRA) to develop whatever needs that have to be captured into the system,” he stated.

Validation is where documents used in clearing goods such as the Customs Classification and Valuation Report (CCVR), the Bill of Laden and customs entries in the system for the same consignment should match, else be rejected.

The product development manager said GCNet would generate more validation reports, which are essential for identifying variances and anomalies, for the authorities to follow up on.

They will also be doing a lot more reconciliation where actual duties paid will be compared with what the system generates to detect anomalies.

Validation

Mr Sackey said although validation and reconciliation were already being done with reports issued religiously, they would continue to work with the GRA and the government to increase those activities and inject more rigour so that loopholes would be tightened to improve on revenue performance.

“The reporting has always been done but we will sit with the authorities more often with our reports in hand to help with fishing out those who may want to abuse the system,” Mr Sackey stated.

Supervision

Mr Sackey stressed that supervision was crucial in getting the best out of the system, saying: “The 34 per cent increase in domestic revenue will not materialise if we relax supervision. We’ll continue to work even closely with the government to ensure that tighter supervision is brought to bear on the system.”

The revenue authority has often met its targets but exceeding it has been challenging. The head of product development said GCNet was prepared again to work with the government and the GRA revenue targets to be exceeded, saying; “This can only come from increased supervision and monitoring.”

Mr Sackey said even though valuation was not an exact science, “when the supervisors constantly review what has been done in the system, they will not only find anomalies but put the revenue collecting officers on their toes to do better.

“It is important for somebody to review the work of others. There is the post-clearance audit that could be performed as a review of the work of officers. You don’t want to keep the goods in the port unduly because of demurrage and other penalties, but you also don’t want to lose revenue,” he posited.

Mr Sackey said such audits would lead to follow-ups where agents and importers could be pursued to pay up any shortfalls detected in their values and duties, adding that if people knew that they would be brought back to pay for those, they would sit up.