To enable monitoring, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has asked all taxpayers to sign up for the Value Added Tax (E-VAT) electronic invoicing system.
On October 1, 2022, the Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority launched its certified electronic invoicing system to guarantee that all invoices generated by taxpayers are verified by the system of the Commissioner.
The deployment of compliance officers and the use of an app for authentication will verify that the electronic invoicing system’s compliance.
There are 50 taxpayers selected across and enrolled on the system. The selected 50 reflect all types of taxpayers registered with the Authority of which some are complying, and others are not.
The Authority will ensure no operations of customers until they hook on to the system.
In a brief meeting with the media on Tuesday, at the Head Office of the Ghana Revenue Authority Accra, Mr Kwesi Eghan, Deputy Commissioner for Operations at the GRA, said the exercise would continue until each taxpayer was fully compliant, 600 additional taxpayers will be enrolled by the end of the first quarter of 2023.
The whole exercise will see its conclusion by 2024 when all taxpayers will be using the Commissioner-General’s invoicing system.
“This closing down of shops is not the path the Authority is forging willingly; it is a last resort action. We will advise that you comply before we start this whole exercise,” he said.
He urged taxpayers to effectively roll out the Commissioner-General’s system to help curb the illegal issuance of own invoices to help generate revenue for the government.
He said the exercise was targeted at the initial selected 50 taxpayers, who are supposed to hook on to the system.
“It is not as if all other taxpayers are not compliant, quite a number are hooked on the system voluntarily as mandated by the Authority,” he added.
He said non-compliant taxpayers would be prevented from operating until hooked on to the system, “if you have six branches and one is closed, you will be prevented from operating from any branch across the country till all six shops are hooked on the system,” he said.
The Authority is embarking on several exercises, including invigilation by officers, electronic invoicing exercises, test-purchase exercises, and enforcement of taxpayers to register with the Authority.