Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has urged the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to utilize the linkage between the Ghana Card and Tax Identification Number (TIN) to effectively identify and collect taxes from individuals and businesses.
He described the GRA’s current approach of solely focusing on existing taxpayers as a lazy approach, emphasizing that a more effective strategy would be to target those who are not yet tax-compliant.
Speaking at the 57th Congregation at KNUST on Friday, the Vice President said “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,” Bawumia asserted.
“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.”
He further advised the GRA to introduce a bonus system based on new taxpayers GRA officers bring to the net.
The Vice President also announced that from December 2023, the government will launch a new system where every child born in Ghana from birth would be issued with a Ghana Card number.
Dr. Bawumia further stated that from next year, as a result of the Ghana card, a credit scoring system would be introduced where those who are diligent in paying their loans will have low interest rates and more access to loans.