By Stanley Senya
Accra, Oct. 19, GNA – The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has showcased its digital tax administration reforms at the seventh Belt and Road Initiative Tax Administration Cooperation Forum (BRITACOF) in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Authority highlighted technology-driven measures to improve revenue mobilisation and compliance.
The forum, hosted by Indonesia’s Directorate General of Taxes from October 13 to 15, 2026, brought together tax administrators and policymakers to discuss digital transformation and cooperation among Belt and Road jurisdictions.
Madam Elsie Appau-Klu, Technical Adviser to the Commissioner-General of the GRA, led Ghana’s delegation and delivered a keynote address during a panel discussion on digital transformation.
Her presentation was on the theme: “From Tax Informatization to Smart Taxation: The Ghanaian Experience and Shared Paths for Belt and Road Jurisdictions.”
Other members of the delegation were Mr Moses Koloni Yidana, Head of the Transfer Pricing Unit, and Mr Abdul Rauf Nasiru, Head of the Telecommunications and Services Large Taxpayer Office in the Audit Division.
Madam Appau-Klu said digital transformation should go beyond introducing technology to reform governance and strengthen trust between tax authorities and taxpayers.
She identified the adoption of the Ghana Card Personal Identification Number as the Tax Identification Number in 2021, the introduction of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) in 2020 and the launch of the Modified Taxation Scheme (MTS) in 2025 as major developments in Ghana’s digital tax reforms.
She said integrating the Ghana Card into tax administration had increased the number of identity-linked taxpayers from about three million to more than 18 million, providing a common identification platform.
ICUMS had unified customs operations across ports and borders, while the MTS enabled eligible informal-sector operators to register with their Ghana Cards, file returns through a mobile application or the *880# short code and pay a flat three per cent tax through mobile money.
Madam Appau-Klu said the approach combined accessible digital services with sophisticated technology, supported by continuous taxpayer education and engagement.
She said the GRA had also introduced electronic VAT invoicing, the Integrated Tax Administration System and Publican AI to strengthen monitoring, improve compliance and identify revenue leakages.
She said Publican AI generated an additional GH¢1 billion in revenue in April 2026 alone by identifying customs undervaluation.
She said the GRA collected GH¢182 billion in revenue in 2025, up from GH¢153 billion in 2024, and had set a target of GH¢310 billion by 2028.
Madam Appau-Klu stressed the need to invest in people alongside technology, saying the authority was retraining auditors to become data analysts and risk managers rather than replacing them with automated systems.
She said artificial intelligence was being used for fraud detection, audit case selection and customs valuation, while final decisions remained the responsibility of human officers. She identified legal authority, data security, privacy protection, human oversight and taxpayers’ rights to object and appeal as essential safeguards.
Madam Appau-Klu called on member jurisdictions to develop common standards for identity verification, electronic invoicing, secure application programming interfaces and artificial intelligence governance under the Tax Administration Product Portfolio 2.0.
She proposed a digital capacity-building programme and a shared repository of successful and unsuccessful reforms, offering Ghana’s informal-sector taxation model as a contribution.
She encouraged Ghana to learn from Brazil’s experience in taxing informal businesses, Indonesia’s electronic tax systems and China’s Golden Tax System, while strengthening cross-border data interoperability to improve tax compliance and facilitate trade.
GNA
Edited by Linda Asante Agyei