The collaboration between the downstream petroleum unit of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Customs Division and Strategic Mobilization Ghana Limited (SML), a revenue and assurance audit firm, is helping the GRA meet and exceed its annual targets.
This came to light when SML Ghana recently held a stakeholder engagement with leadership of the downstream petroleum unit at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Customs Division in Tema, to discuss new initiatives and solicit opinions on how both sides can improve the successes chalked up and further improve the country’s revenues. This meeting forms part of regular stakeholder engagements.
The GRA mobilized GH¢75.5billion domestic revenue last year, which is GH¢3.60billion more than it was tasked to collect. The collection was a five percent increase over last year’s target of GH¢71.94billion. The feat also meant the domestic revenue mobilized the GRA was 31.5 percent more than that collected in 2021. The Customs Division, which includes the petroleum downstream sector, collected GH¢22.26billion as against a target of GH¢20.20 billion – exceeding the target by GH¢2.06billion.
The stakeholder engagement brought together the various Customs heads in charge of downstream petroleum depots across the country’s 16 regions. SML Ghana took the Customs officials through latest technologies – such as for scanning way-bills and purchase orders and reconciling them with meter volumes at the depots in real-time and introduction of level-sensors to monitor, manage and measure the petroleum stocks.
Christian Tetteh Sottie, Managing Director for SML Ghana, stated that the engagement is aimed at taking the officials through a detailed methodology of how SML Ghana is leveraging technology to improve the sector, and remove any misconceptions while establishing the foundation of both sides as partners
Sampson Anim, Assistant Commissioner-Petroleum Downstream at GRA Customs Division, lauded SML Ghana for its transformative technology to maintain transparency while enhancing the sector and increasing revenues.
“The system is perfect. What we previously had was a very manual system of auditing, but this is a digital system that captures all our lifting from the depots through delivery to the filling stations and whatever destinations the product is supposed to be; so we are able to monitor in real-time how much is being loaded at any depot, and it grants us the assurance that, indeed, whatever we have captured for revenue purposes is accurate.
“Everybody is moving from manual to electronic, and this places us in the midst of technology. And now that we have this electronic system, we are more confident with the job that we do as we are confident that the volumes we churn out are correct and accurate. So, it gives us confidence that whatever we have done is correct; and the revenues to be expected are also accurate,” he said.
SML Ghana’s technology impact
Since the technology’s introduction, the average volume per month recorded by SML meters for the product is 400 million litres – which has resulted in an extra revenue of GH¢billion for government between June 2020 and June 2022.
The digital measurement project to monitor revenue from downstream petroleum products from depots across the country is a partnership between the Customs Division of the GRA and SML Ghana, a Ghanaian audit and assurance services company, aimed at digitizing the measurement and reporting of petroleum product supplies from over 20 depots across the country.
Known as the Electronic Metering Management System (EMMS), the system digitizes the entire process chain by providing an end to end audit and assurance to GRA in the downstream petroleum sector.
About SML Ghana
Strategic Mobilization Limited (SML) is a wholly Ghanaian-owned company, with strong financial backing from investors with varied business interests in Ghana across different industries. Steered by a governing board, the organisation currently has two main divisions specializing in the Audit of Downstream Petroleum Products and Trade Transaction pricing, and Business Process Audits at its Tema and Osu offices respectively.
SML is currently offering transactions price audit and assurance services, external price verification services for the Customs Division of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA); and also downstream petroleum measurement audit to aid reconciliation and revenue enhancement for GRA to achieve its objectives.
Source: bftonline