Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has strongly disapproved actions of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), labeling its focus solely on existing taxpayers as a “lazy approach.”
During his address at the 57th Congregation at KNUST, Bawumia urged the GRA to leverage the connection between the Ghana Card and Tax Identification Number (TIN) for a more effective identification and collection of taxes.
He emphasised the potential of linking the Ghana Card number and TIN arguing that targeting non-tax-compliant individuals and businesses, rather than focusing solely on existing taxpayers, would yield better results.
Bawumia suggested introducing a bonus system for GRA officers based on their success in bringing new taxpayers into compliance.
“It is a very lazy approach to go and keep looking for taxes from people who are paying taxes already when you could look at those who are not paying taxes who are the vast majority. They should be the ones that GRA should be focusing on and we would get more taxes from the vast majority.”
“By linking the Ghana Card number and the TIN number, GRA can tell who has filed and who has not filed their tax and so it is rich data that is available to GRA, and I am asking GRA to use that data,” he asserted.
Reiterating the government’s commitment to digitalization, the vice president said a new program will be launched in December 2023 to link newborn babies to the Ghana Card for identification.
He added that, although Ghana remains one of the countries with poor credit systems in Africa, the government will launch a credit scoring system next year to identify the financial history financial obligations of individuals organizations and businesses viable for loans.
“Perpetrators who refuse to pay their loans will be brought to book whilst individuals who diligently pay their loans will have low interest rates”. he emphasized.
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH
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