Parliament has agreed to tax breaks for the implementation of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Training Academy project.
An amount of US$878,364.92 of Ghana Cedi equivalent taxes made up of import duties, import VAT, GETFund Levy, import NHIL, EXIM Levy and special import levy was waived yesterday on IT equipment, materials and services to be imported and procured locally by the GRA for the academy.
The request was presented to the House on Tuesday, June 16, 2020 by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, on behalf of the Minister for Finance and the Speaker referred the request to the Finance Committee for consideration and report.
Observations
Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah, said the committee was informed that as part of efforts to modernize the tax revenue system in the country and improve on the usage of IT-based business processes for better service delivery, GRA was implementing an IT infrastructure project.
According to him, the training institute will enable the GRA to improve upon its IT-literacy and provide skills to ensure proper use of the IT applications within GRA.
He indicated that Parliament approved an amount of €3,500,000.00 with a grant of €1,500,000.00 in 2016, “in order to successfully undertake this project.”
“The authority has prepared the land and completed all the needed evolutions as well as acquired the necessary permit to undertake the project.”
He stated that the request was to enable the government to fulfill its part of the agreement and to ensure a successful implementation of the project.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House