Akufo-Addo Dissolves GRA Board

The Dr Anthony Oteng-Gyasi-led board of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), which has been spearheading the country’s revenue mobilisation efforts has been dissolved by the President of the Republic Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

As a consequence, the Commissioner General of the GRA who is a member of the board, Rev Dr Amishaddai Owusu-Amoah (62), has also been removed and his place will be filled in an acting capacity by Miss Julie Essiam, who until her new appointment, was the Commissioner responsible for the Support Services Division of the GRA.

Miss Pearl Darko, who is currently the deputy director general in charge of operations at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) will be moved from SNNIT to take up the role of Commissioner responsible for the Support Services Division of the GRA.

Sources at the Presidency who are familiar with the decision to reconstitute the GRA board indicate that a senior New Patriotic Party (NPP) sitting member of Parliament will be appointed as the chairman of the new board of directors of the GRA which will be announced in due course.

The Commissioner, of Customs Division Alhaji Seidu Iddrisu Iddisah, and the Commissioner, of Domestic Tax and Revenue Division, Mr Edward Appenteng Gyamerah are also expected to be replaced by new appointees following their statutory retirement.

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) was established in 2009 as a merger of the three revenue agencies; the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Value Added Tax Service (VATS), and the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB) by the Ghana Revenue Authority Act 2009, (Act 791).

The GRA’s core mandate is to ensure maximum compliance with all relevant tax laws to ensure a sustainable revenue stream for government, trade facilitation, and a controlled and safe flow of goods across the country’s borders.

GRA also administers several international agreements that govern the country’s relations with other tax jurisdictions and institutions such as World Customs Organisation Protocols, World Trade Organisation Protocols, Double Taxation, and Exchange of Information Agreements.

The Authority is made up of two operational divisions; the Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD), and the Customs Division (CD) with assistance from the Support Services Division (SSD) and the Commissioner General’s Secretariat.