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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has exceeded its 2009 target by GH¢223,657,889, representing a 14.4 percent increase. The service had initially targeted GH¢1,554,542,500 but managed to collect GH¢1,778,200,389 as revenue.

The Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) component of the amount was GH¢780,176,359.75, despite a target of GH¢662,177,669.79, registering a positive difference of GH¢117,998,689.96 and an increase of 17.8 percent.

The self-employed revenue component was GH¢72,455,509.55 even though an amount of GH¢82,479,694.66 was initially targeted.

The corporate tax aspect was GH¢728,603,962.58 despite IRS targeting GH¢676,852,236.59.

Minerals royalties also witnessed a total collection of GH¢90,363,726.72 in spite of a target of GH¢74,935,509.90 while other taxes recorded GH¢106,600,831.39, an increase of 83.5 percent for the target of GH¢58,097,389.08.

A source at IRS could however not give the service’s performance for the last quarter of 2009.

Information available at the service indicates that IRS had targeted GH¢28,632,392.03 in the third quarter, but managed to collect GH¢36,694,356.70, which was a positive variance of 28.2 percent.

Also, the various taxes fared well with the exception of the self-employed and airport tax which underperformed by 4 and 7 percent respectively.

IRS was tasked to expand the tax net to cover self-employed, artisans and traders in the fourth quarter.

The payment of severance packages to employees of Ghana Telecom and AngloGold Ashanti and the indexation of salaries of some mining companies to the dollar helped its Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) component, which exceeded its target in the third quarter.

Corporate tax also enjoyed a boost as a result of the impressive performance of some banks, breweries and estate developers.

In the case of the Value Added Tax (VAT) Service, there was the drastic reduction in Scancom’s tax during the third quarter.

VAT Service was urged to intensify its distress action on defaulting taxpayers in addition to conducting nationwide audits across the local offices.

The Customs, Excise & Preventive Service (CEPS) failed to achieve its overall target but managed to exceed some of its targets.

The under performance of the duty and levies category of the import sector was due to the removal of import duty on rice, wheat, yellow maize and vegetable oil and a ban of some goods, prompting a decline in the volume of imports for top 50 imported commodities.

The low deliveries of diesel oil, kerosene, residual fuel oil and lower taxes affected the performance of the petroleum sector; hence, a dip in revenue by 32.3 percent in the third quarter of 2009.

dailyguide