A report by the Ghana Revenue Authority’s Special Revenue Mobilisation Taskforce has revealed that revenue from excise dropped from GH¢336,286.99 in 2015 to GH¢27,742.27 in 2016, representing a 91.75 percent drop within the one-year period.
Even though the taskforce was not able to detail reasons for the massive drop in excise revenue, it said since it commenced operations in 2015, it has been able to collect a total of GH¢183,559,387.70 in revenue under nine different tax categories.
This represented a 32 percent increase compared to the 2015 figure of GH¢138,827,203.91.
The report further said among the nine categories, VAT and NHIL ranked in the highest value of GH¢103,932,641.77 in 2016, followed by withholding taxes, corporate taxes, and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) respectively at GH¢34,492,250.20, GH¢20,573,335.00 and GH¢15,608,162.60.
Revenue from rent, which increased by more than 4,000 percent between 2015 and 2016, performed best in terms of percentage, placing sixth with GH¢6,739,107.76.
This was followed by revenue from self-employed and Communication Services Tax with GH¢1,117,309.71 and GH¢573,000 respectively.
Comparing the revenue collection in 2015 and 2016, withholding taxes recorded the highest drop of GH¢19,741,104.99.
Additionally, corporate taxes dropped by GH¢6,609,086.32, with excise dropping by GH¢308,544.72 in 2016.
Though Henry Sam, the Head of the Special Revenue Mobilisation taskforce at GRA, described the trend as encouraging, he indicated that his outfit would intensify operations to meet its target this year.
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