Vice-President, Dr. Mahamudu Buwumia, has urged the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to take advantage of the Ghana Card as the basis of data and the information it needs to widen the country's tax net.
According to him, since the merger of the Tax Identification Number (TIN) into the Ghana Card system, the government has been able to increase the number of people with TIN from the four percent it inherited in 2017 to the current 85 percent.
He stated that the card could help track economic activities and close the loopholes in the informal sector.
Dr. Bawumia indicated that the move would allow the revenue authority to tax and also go after individuals and organisations that evaded tax payments.
Speaking at the 57th Congregation of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Dr. Bawumia said So I am admonishing GRA. I am saying that the data is available now that we have put this together.
It is a very lazy approach to go and keep looking for taxes from people who are already paying their taxes when you can look at the vast majority who are not paying their taxes.
Effective April 1, 2021, GRA and the Registrar-General's Department (RGD) in collaboration with the National Identification Authority (NIA) said the Ghana Card Personal Identification Number (Ghana Card PIN) has replaced the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) of individuals issued by the GRA for tax identification purposes.
This change is in line with the government's policy on the use of a unique identifier for all transactions where the identification of an individual is required.
To ensure a seamless roll-out of this initiative, the following measures have been instituted: registration officials of the National Identification Authority (NIA) are currently stationed at 14 GRA offices across the country to register individuals who do not possess a Ghana Card.
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