[ 2017-11-07 ]

New agency inaugurated to boost revenue collection in oil and gas sector
Finance Minister Mr Ken Ofori-Atta has inaugurated
the Multi-Agency Petroleum Revenue Committee
(MAPREC) to coordinate the efforts of state
institutions in the oil and gas sector in order to
improve petroleum revenue collection.

The Committee, with membership from the Ministry
of Finance, the Ghana Revenue Authority, Petroleum
Commission, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation,
Bank of Ghana and Ministry of Energy will come out
with pragmatic measures to address the challenges
associated with the petroleum revenue collection.

The Committee under the Chairmanship of Kweku
Kwarteng, Deputy Minister of Finance, would work
to identify constraints that have caused
underperformance of oil and gas revenue, and adopt
remedial measures to improve collection.

The set-up of the committee followed a study
undertaken by the Ghana Oil and Gas for Inclusive
Growth (GOGIG) Programme in partnership with the
Ghana Revenue Authority to assess and identify
potential revenue losses along the oil and gas
decision chain.

The study was to provide further understanding of
the constraints in petroleum revenue collection
while informing the Ghana Revenue Authority and
the GOGIG Programme of appropriate areas for
interventions that optimize revenue collection.

The work of the MAPERC will bridge the
coordination gap existing amongst state
institutions in the oil and gas sector to improve
revenue collection.

Mr Ofori-Atta said revenue generation was a major
challenge and therefore any effort geared towards
finding avenues to ensure that those who have to
pay do so and to create a society in which people
fulfil their tax responsibility was welcomed.

He said the non-payment of taxes was very
pervasive either through the lack of knowledge or
the inability of the country’s systems to
capture them.

While there were about 10 million economic active
people, out of which about four million in formal
employment, only 1.1 million people paid their
taxes.

The informal sector where the bulk of economic
activities occur, have only 200,000 paying their
taxes.

Mr Ofori-Atta said to reverse some of these trends
in the oil sector, the committee would work to
push understanding among stakeholders and increase
accountability, which was key to getting the
necessary revenue from the oil and gas sector.

He suggested the expansion of the membership of
the Committee to include the Ghana Ports and
Harbours Authority, the Maritime Authority, and
the National Petroleum Authority, to ensure not
only the coverage of the upstream sector but also
the downstream as well.

Ms Adelaide Addo-Fenning, Team Leader GOGIG, said
the five-year governance programme was aimed at
promoting inclusive economic growth in Ghana by
improving the management of the country’s oil
and gas resources.

She said a key objective was to improve revenue
capture, adding that the success of the programme
would be measured by the extent to which GOGIG was
able to support government to increase revenue
from the sector as well as strengthen policy and
regulatory framework.

Ms Adelaide Addo-Fenning said the DFID-funded
GOGIG programme was to also help address capacity
constraints by improving the capacity of
government agencies involved in the management of
Ghana’s nascent oil and gas sector, as well as
engaging with a variety of accountability actors
involved in improving public scrutiny of the
sector.

“A key objective is to support government to
maximize the benefits that can be derived from the
nascent industry. Clearly all indicators show that
it is going to be key driver of economic growth in
the short and medium term,” Ms Addo-Fenning
added.

She said GOGIG in the past two years had provided
capacity building support to the Ghana Revenue
Authority, help with the income tax act, and
Petroleum Revenue Management Act regulations.

She said a study carried out in collaboration with
GRA to identify areas of potential revenue losses
and to enhance revenue capture in the Petroleum
Industry, showed the need for coordination among
the institutions involved in the sector.

It also stressed the need to clarify guidelines
and regulations, as well as simplifying some of
the arrangements.

“If the agencies are better coordinated there is
a better chance of raising more revenue,” she
added, and pledged GOGGI continuous support to the
institutions and the committee.

Source - Ghana News Agency

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