Collection of property rates: GRA debunks claims of unconstitutional practice

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has debunked claims that it is engaging in illegalities by collecting property rates on behalf of the Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts Assemblies (MMDAs).

The claim, which was levelled against the authority by the Chamber for Local Governance (ChaLoG) in a statement issued on May 31 said the Property Rate Tax was a ceded revenue for District Assemblies as enshrined in Section 124 (3) of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936) and could not be collected by any other institution other than the District Assemblies.

However, in a statement signed by the Head of Communication for the myassembly.gov.gh project of the GRA, the authority said the cited piece of legislation spoke to revenue of district assemblies but made no reference to the district assemblies collecting revenues on their own.

It added that the article in question also said nothing about the MMDAs not allowing other state agencies assist them in the collection of internally generated funds which included property rate.

“The local governance act, ACT 936 Sec 144 does state that: “A District Assembly shall be the only authority to LEVY rates for a district despite any customary law to the contrary”, this is not in question as in this case, the GRA does NOT levy property rates,” the statement said. 

Being efficient

According to the GRA, it was simply enabling efficiency in the collection of the revenue by providing the much-needed 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.

It said the computation of the property, which had to do with multiplying the rateable value from the Lands Valuation Division of the Lands Commission by the rate impost had always been set by the district, adding “The GRA has no hand in that either.”

“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,” it explained further. 

Background

In January 2023, the GRA, in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, rolled out the Unified Common Property Rate Platform, also known as Myassembly.gov.gh, to enable property owners to verify their rates and pay the same.

The platform, which is also linked to the Ghana.gov.gh payment platform, is currently the sole payment platform for the payment of property rates and comes with the codified valuations of all properties throughout the country after the Lands Commission partnered the GRA and the ministry to collect data required to bill all properties in the country.

In all, the list and details of more than 8.87 million properties were captured on the end-to-end district revenue collection and administration platform designed to enhance the collection of and accounting for property rates.