GRA refutes Auditor-General’s report on GH₵3.26bn loss

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) says the country has not lost GH₵3.26 billion as reported in the 2021 Auditor General’s report.

According to the GRA the said amount, which was Energy Sector Levies, was not included in the assessment conducted by the Audit Service in May 2022.

Mrs Florence Asante, the Assistant Commissioner, Communication and Public Affairs, GRA, in a statement, explained the circumstance leading to the money being tagged “unaccounted”.

She said the GRA furnished the Controller and Accountant General Department (CAGD) with provisional revenue figures for 2021 of GH₵60.69 billion in March 2022, including Energy Sector Levies totaling GH₵3.2 billion.

“In May 2022, the Audit Service conducted an audit of revenue collected by GRA in 2021 and arrived at a figure of GH₵57.43 billion,” the statement said.

However, this figure did not take into consideration the Energy Sector Levies that GRA reports on such as Energy Debt Service, Energy Debt Recovery, Power Generation and Sanitation and Pollution levy.

Mrs Asante said: “These levies totaling GH₵3.2 billion were omitted from the Audit report even though the figures were provided,” adding that GRA, therefore, reiterates that no revenue is missing.

She said, as explained earlier Dr John Kumah, the Deputy Minister of Finance, the differences in data generated by different agencies did not necessarily show loss of revenue to the Government.

The Auditor General had noted in its 2021 report that while GRA and the Ministry of Finance reported a total tax revenue of GH₵57.43 billion, the records of Controller and Accountant General Department showed a total tax revenue of GH₵60 billion.

It, therefore, said that GH₵3.26 billion was unaccounted for between the three institutions.

Providing details, the Auditor General noted that Direct and Indirect taxes reported by CAGD amounted to  GH₵27.7 billion (GH₵27,709,806,120) and GH₵32.9 billion (GH₵32,979,232,570) respectively in the Government Accounts.

It noted that the amount, compared with GRA reported tax revenue of GH₵27.6 billion and GH₵29.8 billion for direct and indirect taxes respectively, resulted in an overstatement of tax revenue of GH₵3.26 billion