The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has announced that it will be sending Technical Support Officers (TSOs) and Client Support Officers (CSOs) to private and commercial properties to assist property owners and rate payers to register, add their properties and pay their rates electronically on www.myassembly.gov.gh.
The common platform would centralise the collection of property tax rates with the GRA out of the hands of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Authorities who had failed to effectively collect property rates to finance their activities.
This is to ensure the platform is in full throttle to boost the revenue of the government.
The GRA is collaborating with the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development (MLGDRD) to ensure that the payment of 2023 property rates is made as easy and convenient as possible for the general public.
The public is advised to look out for the TSOs and CSOs who can be identified by their 1D Cards and their myassembly.gov.gh branded vests. If in doubt, members of the public are encouraged to contact the Call Centre numbers provided by the GRA.
It is important to note that refusing to register implies that property owners will not be able to access their bills, and in default, section 156 of Act 936 shall be applied to the letter.
The GRA has also emphasized that there should be no cash payment whatsoever to anybody. Property rate payments should be conducted on www.myassembly.gov.gh using Mobile Money, Debit and Credit cards and Bank Transfers.
The services of all GRA officers are free and all property rate payments to GRA must be conducted on www.myassembly.gov.gh.
The Commissioner-General has also encouraged the public to visit the GRA website: www.gra.gov.gh for more information.
In a recent interview, Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, says the common platform for the collection of property tax rates in the country will be fully operational.
According to Governance Watch, the new regime would ensure that only 30 percent of property rates collected by the service provider through the common platform will be remitted to the assemblies.
The remaining 70 percent will be shared among the Ghana Revenue Authority, the Finance Ministry and the service provider.
Dr. Owusu-Amoah expressed optimism that the platform would help introduce efficiency into property rate collection.
“In terms of all the works that needs to be done have been done and we’re expecting that the full – in fact we started some announcement in the papers – we’re expecting that a full takeover will be from the end of this month, I mean, this month going the full implementation,” he said.
So far, “what we have done is that there are a number of properties that we have already raised their assessment, we have introduced a common platform that is a system that allows you to be able to populate all the properties in there.”
He said when the platform is fully functional, property owners are being encouraged to go update their records with any additional properties they may have, “and then within that system we are able to generate your rates applicable to your property.”
He continued, “You know the rates differ from area to area, that is municipality to municipality and then we’ll be able to advise the property owners of their rate. At the same time we’re also encouraging once the platform is ready, we’re encouraging property owners to also go in and if even your applicable rate has not been generated yet, you can still even pay in advance if you so desire, and then when the rates are updated you’ll be able to get the right figure for your property rate.
“So end of March is the effective date…and we’re expecting that everybody will be on board and it will be for the whole year. So we’re expecting that any payments that anybody will have to do on property rates this year must be done on the platform.”
By Vincent Kubi