The Regional tax hub set itself a target of GHC578.80 million, but raked in more in the sum of GHC 652.23 representing 12.7 per cent.

It however missed its national target by 5.5 per cent, as the total tax collected came to GHC 37.63 billion instead of GHC 39.80 billion.

Mr. Edward Aggrey-Fynn, a Principal Revenue Officer of GRA in the Ashanti Region who announced this, said the revenue target for the Region this year was GHC751.39 million, an increase of 15 per cent over the 2018 target.

He was speaking at a press soiree organised by the GRA for the media in the Ashanti Region in Kumasi.

The Principal Revenue officer said the GRA missed the national target for the year under review, despite the shortfall however, the authority recorded a nominal growth of 16.4 per cent in revenue performance, adding that domestic tax revenue grew by 24.4.

He disclosed that the national revenue target for 2019 was GHC 45.4 billion and gave the assurance that the authority was working hard to achieve the target.

Mr Samuel Sakyi-Duodu, Head of the Asokwa Medium Tax Office (MTO), said the media played critical role in tax collection by the GRA and would continue to forge a strong partnership to drive revenue mobilisation for national development.

He said by law, every citizen was required to file their tax returns by April 30 and urged the media to  spread the message to facilitate voluntary compliance and there were plans by the authority to introduce electronic filling of tax returns by June this year to make the process more flexible.

He spoke of plans to introduce night tax collection from businesses operating at nights such as drinking spots and others to broaden the tax base.

Touching on the Tax Identification Number, Mr Sakyi-Duodu called on all Ghanaians to register since the TIN captured all the vital information and biodata of individuals for documentation purposes.