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0 NewsGhana, Latest Updates and Breaking News of Ghana, News Ghana, https://www.newsghana.com.gh/gra-eyes-two-million-informal-businesses-to-double-tax-revenue/Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Commissioner-General Anthony Sarpong on Thursday set out an ambitious plan to bring more than two million informal sector operators into the tax net within three years, as part of a broader strategy to double the country’s tax revenue by 2028.
Speaking at the 10th Ghana Chief Executive Officer Summit in Accra on May 28, Sarpong said Ghana’s long-term transformation agenda would only succeed if the country built a stronger domestic revenue base, warning that increasingly difficult global financing conditions made dependence on external borrowing unsustainable.
He said domestic revenue mobilisation remains central to Ghana’s development agenda, particularly at a time when the country is seeking to deepen economic transformation and reduce reliance on external financing.
The Commissioner-General said the GRA’s reform agenda rests on four pillars: fairness, capability, productive economic growth and national sovereignty. He stressed the approach is not about imposing new burdens on compliant businesses but about widening the tax base.
“The path to a stronger fiscal foundation lies in expanding the tax base rather than tightening the burden on those already paying taxes,” he said.
Sarpong disclosed that a modified taxation scheme for informal businesses, introduced in November 2025, applies a flat three per cent income tax on annual turnover of up to GH¢500,000. The GRA expects this scheme to generate more than GH¢10 billion in additional revenue once the two million target is achieved.
On technology, Sarpong revealed that an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered customs valuation and decision-support system generated more than GH¢1 billion in customs revenue in April 2026 alone, with May collections expected to surpass that figure. He said the system improved compliance and blocked revenue leakages at the ports.
He also announced that the Integrated Tax Application and Preparation System (iTaPS), a project that had stalled for years before being revived and completed within nine months, would migrate taxpayers accounting for 95 per cent of Ghana’s total tax revenue onto its platform by mid-June 2026. The system draws on data from the Registrar-General’s Department, the Lands Commission and the National Identification Authority to strengthen compliance monitoring.
The GRA’s 2026 revenue target stands at GH¢225 billion, approximately GH¢50 billion more than the previous year’s target, with a tax-to-GDP ratio of about 13.6 per cent recorded in 2025.
Sarpong added that electronic fiscal devices for real-time VAT monitoring are expected by the third quarter of 2026, while systems to capture e-commerce transactions could generate an estimated GH¢2.5 billion in additional Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue.
NewsGhana, Latest Updates and Breaking News of Ghana, News Ghana, https://www.newsghana.com.gh/gra-eyes-two-million-informal-businesses-to-double-tax-revenue/
