Govt misses revenue target by GH¢7.75bn

The Government missed its revenue target for the first six months of the year by GH 7.75 billion, representing a drop of 26 per cent.

The government was able to raise GH¢22.01 billion out of a projected GH 29.76 billion for the period.

This was disclosed by the Minister of Finance, Mr KEN Ofori Atta when he presented the mid year budget to parliament.

He said the revenue shortfall was as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic which had triggered a global economic recession.

Non-oil tax revenue, comprising taxes on income and property, goods and services, and international trade amounted to GH¢16.723 billion, representing 4.3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). 

The recorded outturn was 16.2 per cent below the programmed target of GH¢19.95 billion (5.2 per cent of GDP). 

The lower than programmed performance in non-oil tax revenue resulted from underperformance of non-oil taxes such as domestic Value Added Tax (VAT), petroleum excise taxes, the National Health Insurance Levy, and the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) Levy. 

However, personal income tax and communication services tax both out-performed their respective targets for the period.

 Revenue from upstream 

Revenue from upstream oil and gas activities amounted to GH¢1.99 billion, 55.4 per cent lower than the programmed target of GH¢4.47 billion. 

Mr Ofori Atta said this was due to the  lower than programmed performance of company taxes from the oil and gas sector, as well as the global decline in crude oil prices due to impact of COVID-19. 

Non-tax revenue (non-oil) yielded GH¢1.774 billion, 39.4 per cent below target.

The fall in non-tax revenue for the period was attributed to lower than programmed ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs’) retention and lodgement for the period.

“Mr Speaker, grants disbursements were below target during the period mainly due to both lower project and programmed grants. The expectation is that disbursements will recover in the second half of the year, following the anticipated gradual easing of the COVID-19 restrictions in donor countries,”

he said.