Finance Minister commissions digital petroleum measurement project to boost Gov’t Revenue

In order to realize its full revenue from various tank farms across the country, the Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Revenue Authority in collaboration with Strategic Mobilization Company, has commissioned a digital downstream petroleum products measurement project in Tema.

Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, said the new system will address discrepancies between GRA, the National Petroleum Authority, and companies in a bid to raise taxes for the state.

He also stated that the electric metering which goes live on July 1, will eliminate losses of about two to three billion cedis within the downstream petroleum sector, by eliminating the old system where Customs officials had to use a dip stick to take measurement at customs bonded petroleum depots.

“All the pipes entering every depot are tagged, so you know exactly what is coming in and all the pipes going out are also tagged so you know exactly what the quantities are. That then enables you to have numbers that are irreconcilable. Also, you will see the differences in numbers between the NPA, GRA and the companies themselves. So, we have eliminated that and it was about two to three billion cedis of losses. We are really excited about this change where we can now determine and get the exact revenues we want,” he said.

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The General Manager of Strategic Mobilization Ghana Limited, SML, Christian Sottie, also says the system is being monitored in real time to boost efficiency.

“There is always this confusion about what the actual figure is. So, this project was conceived to have an electronic IT solution to that problem whereby there will be no human intervention and the system will record what takes place in real time. This will ensure that products going in and coming out are recorded,” he said.

The Commissioner General of Customs, Colonel Kojo Damoah, added that government is likely to accumulate more revenues with the new system.

“If you know that within a certain time frame, you have lost close to about four billion, then using the same time period and volumes, you can conjecture, and you are likely to save close to about the same amount or more by the implementation of this new system”.

Source: citibusinessnews.com