The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has honoured some staff and stakeholders at its 2018 Edition of the Annual GRA Staff and Stakeholders Awards Ceremony in Accra.

The Awards, held at the weekend, rewarded loyal working staff who dedicated their time and made sacrifices to ensure the achievement of institutional goals for the year.

The GRA, through the award scheme, also acknowledged the enormous contributions of taxpayers and business owners who were complaint in the filling of returns and payment of taxes on due dates.

Mr Emmanuel Nti, the Commissioner-General of GRA, at the Awards night, appealed to all income earners to continue to support the Authority in its revenue mobilisation drive.

He said it was important that all income-earners demonstrated the spirit of patriotism and nationalism and to willingly pay their fair share of taxes to achieve the dream of a Ghana beyond Aid.

He said taxpayers were partners in development who had contributed to GRA’s success and that the Authority could not have done it alone.

“Let me say that GRA could not have collected GH37.6 billion in 2018 without the efforts of our hardworking staff and particularly the willingness of taxpayers to comply with the tax laws,” Mr Nti said.

He said in its desire to meet the 2019 revenue target, the GRA would apply to the letter the laws, including the use of all compliance tools.

He said the GRA would continue to deepen its partnership with the taxpaying public through sustained public education efforts and continuous engagements.

He congratulated the public for the immense cooperation in implementing the various tax measures including the Taxpayer Identification Numbering system, Tax Amnesty and Tax Stamp Policy.

Mr Kweku Kwarteng, the Deputy Minister of Finance, said GRA was going through challenging times, especially the underperformance of the Customs Division.

He said the growing demands on government for social and infrastructure development meant that more revenue must be accrued to satisfy those needs.

In that direction, he said, government would soon carry out reforms and institutional changes at the GRA and deploy all the compliance measures to ensure that every business contributed it quota.

Major Ablorh Quarcoo (Rtd), the Board Member of GRA, said despite the challenges GRA had kept the country going through the mobilisation of tax revenue.

Scancom Ghana Limited MTN emerged the Overall Best Taxpayer 2018 in the Large Taxpayer Category followed by Newmont Ghana Gold Limited.

The Best Indigenous Company Award winner in the Large Taxpayer Category went to Kasapreko Company Limited.

The Overall Best Worker 2018 went to Randy Kofi Adu, whilst Mr Charles Dogbatse won the Award for Social Media Manager.

The Best Development Partner Award went to DANIDA, with the Media Personality Award going to Elvis Darko of the Finder Newspaper.

Source: GNA