A statement issued by the Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet) in Accra yesterday after a day’s briefing and training session on the deployment of TRIPS organised by the GCNet and GRA said the achievement was against the background that even though the countrywide rollout was still ongoing, the offices of the DTRD that were already using TRIPS to administer their taxpayers, account for about eighty four per cent of all tax revenue of the division.

“Following the integration and automation of the process of the Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD) of the GRA, most offices have adopted the Total Revenue Integrated Processing System (TRIPS) developed by the Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet) to automate the processes for assessing, filing and payment of various domestic tax forms such as Income Tax, PAYE, VAT, Withholding Tax, Gift Tax, etc,” the statement said.

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the GCNet the statement said boosted by the development have decided to introduce a competition and awards scheme to boost the full migration of all taxpayers onto TRIPS in order to create a uniform platform.

This the statement said was expected to encourage offices to accelerate the migration process, amidst the realisation that the introduction of the TRIPS roll out as a main processing system had marked a major milestone in the history of the DTRD of the GRA.

GCNet will award GH?25,000 every quarter to the winning implementing tax office to address logistic constraints, and the move could signal the Domestic Tax Revenue Division taking full advantage of the opportunities that the deployment of the Total Revenue Integrated Payment System brings on board in helping to automate the processes for assessing, filing and payment of various domestic taxes.

According to the Commissioner of the Domestic Tax Revenue Division (DTRD), Mr. Kwasi Gyimah Asante, the introduction of the competition would encourage hard work and good ethics and lauded GCNet & GRA for introducing the competition and awards scheme.

Mr. Gyimah Asante was optimistic the timely resolution of challenges would have significant impact on the turnaround time of the Ghana Revenue Authority in achieving its mandate in revenue mobilisation.

General Manager of Ghana Community Network Services Limited GCNet, Mr. Alwin Hoegerle noted that the partnership with the Domestic Tax Revenue Division of the GRA aligns with the core mandate of GCNet to improve revenue mobilisation through the deployment of efficient ICT enabled systems to significantly contribute to national development.

He explained the training session and the sponsorship of the award scheme was consistent with GCNet’s commitment not only to build capacity and provide logistics support but also to ensure the speedy migration of the TRIPS in all tax offices across the nation to guarantee speedy processing of tax returns and revenue mobilisation.

By Times Reporter