Goverment, through the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has launched a Digital Downstream Petroleum Products Measurement Project to help the GRA determine the revenue to be earned on supplies of petroleum products.
The project is a public private partnership initiative between GRA and Strategic Mobilization Ghana Limited (SML), a wholly owned Ghanaian company that focuses on transactions, audit and assurance services.
The system is an end-to-end electronic metering management system (EMMS) that helps to validate measure and assure the quantity of downstream petroleum products transported from the various depots and bunkering sites including tank farms.
Launching the project, which is expected to kick off on July 1, 2020, Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, said downstream petroleum revenue has been a major feature of government’s fiscal policy, which accounts for 12.3% of total tax revenue.
According to him, the revenue would be driven by the volumes and movement of the stock of petroleum products, adding that “for each movement we miss, we miss crucial revenue, we miss an opportunity to drive Ghana closer to a country beyond aid and we miss an opportunity to transform and impact the lives of Ghanaians.”
He said government found it expedient to institute systems to effectively monitor the movement of each molecule of petroleum product and the associated revenue to better serve the people of Ghana hence the Digital Downstream Oil Management Project would help provide electronic audit and independent assurance capabilities to the GRA.
According to him, the system will address the issues of reconciliation of the figures for all parties that depend on them and make it capable for reporting purposes.
On his part, the Commissioner General of GRA, Col. Kwadwo Damoah, said GRA was already undertaking transaction audit of its services of valuation and classification of all imports and external price verification for customs technical service bureau with Strategic Mobilization Ghana Limited (SML).
According to him, the EMMS project covers both government and private bulk distribution companies and that the system is able to pull date in real time from the various depots for GRA.
Managing Director of Strategic Mobilization Ghana Limited (SML), Christian Sottie, said GRA had taken the strategic decision to partner SML on the project, adding that “the project is a Public Private Partnership initiative that helps to deploy EMMS for validating amount of petroleum products moved from the various depots and bunkering sites.”
Source:dailguidenetwork
