We can take property rates – GRA

Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has described as untrue suggestions by the Chamber for Local Governance (ChaLoG) in a statement on May 31, 2023, that property rates can only be collected by the District Assemblies.

It said Section 124 of Act 936 as cited by the ChaLoG, spoke to revenue of district assemblies but made no reference to the District Assemblies collecting revenues on their own.

A statement issued by the GRA and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Accra said that same section said nothing about the Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MMDAs) not allowing other state agencies to assist them in the collection of internally generated funds, including property rate.

It said the GRA did not levy property rates, however, it was enabling the efficient collection of the revenue by providing the required technology, data, security, transparency and among others to ensure that the collection of property rate was maximised and the identified ills of the past resolved.

The statement said the Local Governance Act, ACT 936 Sec 144 stated that: “A District Assembly shall be the only authority to levy rates for a district despite any customary law to the contrary.”

According to the GRA, the computation of the property was by multiplying the rateable value from the Lands Valuation Division (LVD) of the Lands Commission by the rate set by the district.

“It is worthy of note though, that section 148 of Act 936, states that ‘when a rating authority has given notice of a rate, a person liable to pay the rate, shall pay the amount to a rate collector or other person duly appointed or authorised by the District Assembly concerned to collect and receive the rate at the time and place specified by the rating authority’ and as such, all proper rate must be paid to the collector, in this case, the GRA.”

The statement said the prohibitive cost of valuations rendered the valuation of properties in the various MMDAs near impossibility and some MMDAs over the period, relied on private companies and other international bodies to value properties.

The methods, it said had not yielded the requisite results until the current GRA’s involvement.

“We are using base maps with enhanced building footprints and other variables. The MMDAs had solutions that required them to procure base maps on their own, these solutions have not been put to their full potential due to the high cost of these base maps,” the statement said.

It said through the project, the base map of the whole country which included over 10million building footprints had been procured and made available to aid the LVD with the identification of all properties in the country.

“For the first time in this country, each property in each district within this country is accounted for; their location and how to get to each of them,” the statement added.

The GRA said it had among other achievements, identified over 10.1 million properties in the country eligible for property rate.

It said it had also provided transparency to rate payers on what was being charged and how it was done and provided the foundation to ensure that future years property rate collection would be transparent, efficient and achievable.

The statement said the GRA had only improved the property rate regime to ensure transparency and accountability.

It encouraged all citizens to pay their property rates since it was widely believed that few people were within the tax net and only the few loyal patriotic ones kept on paying.

“The easiest way to expand this net and develop our country is for all hands to be on deck. Let’s all pay our property rates for rapid decentralised development,” the statement said.