GRA Surpasses 10-Month Target with GH¢185.5bn, Eyes GH¢310bn by 2028

The Ghana Revenue Authority has exceeded its revenue target for the first ten months of 2026, collecting GH¢185.5 billion against a target of GH¢184.4 billion, Commissioner-General Anthony Kwasi Sarpong has disclosed.

The GH¢1.1 billion surplus means the authority has already surpassed its total collection of GH¢182 billion for the whole of 2025, with two months still remaining in the year .

Speaking at the 15th Ghana Economic Forum organised by the Business and Financial Times in Accra on Tuesday, Mr Sarpong expressed confidence that the GRA will meet its GH¢237 billion target for 2026, which includes collections under the Energy Sector Levies Act .

Digital Reforms Drive Performance

The Commissioner-General attributed the strong showing to ongoing reforms in tax administration, legislative reviews and the adoption of digital technologies. He singled out the deployment of artificial intelligence in customs classification and valuation, which he said generates at least US$100 million monthly .

The GRA’s Publican AI system, launched earlier this year, has already contributed an additional GH¢4 billion in Customs revenue by reducing human discretion in import assessments and strengthening the detection of undervaluation . The authority also introduced a real-time VAT framework in October 2026, under which banks and mobile money operators withhold VAT on cross-border digital services at the point of payment .

Mr Sarpong said the Integrated Tax Administration System and the planned implementation of fiscal electronic devices in 2027 would further improve collection efficiency .

Doubling Revenue by 2028

The authority’s broader ambition is to double its 2024 collection of GH¢153 billion to approximately GH¢310 billion by December 2028 . The trajectory would see revenue rise from GH¢182 billion in 2025 to GH¢237 billion in 2026, then to about GH¢260 billion in 2027 before reaching the 2028 target .

Mr Sarpong stressed that the strategy is to broaden the tax base rather than increase the burden on existing compliant taxpayers.

“Our objective cannot be to collect more and more from the same taxpayers, year after year. That approach has limits, and it places an ever-heavier burden on those who are already compliant,” he said .

He added that improving domestic revenue mobilisation would reduce government dependence on borrowing, allowing banks to make more funds available to businesses seeking loans to expand .

Budget Context

The disclosure comes as Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson prepares to present the 2027 Budget on Thursday, November 12. The GRA’s performance will be a key indicator of the government’s fiscal consolidation efforts, as the New Economy programme seeks to increase productive spending without additional borrowing.

The authority’s fourth Strategic Plan (2023-2027) targets a tax-to-GDP ratio of 18-20 percent by the end of 2027, up from 13.1 percent in 2022 . The GRA has also moved to tax the digital economy, constituting a committee to identify and onboard non-resident digital service providers and deploying an e-commerce compliance tool to trace cross-border digital payments .