A sample of a Ghana Card
HOLDERS OF Ghana Cards will soon be able to use their identity numbers as their tax identification number (TIN), the Ghana Revenue Authority has assured.
Rev. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, Commissioner of GRA, who disclosed this to journalists in Accra recently, stated that such a collaboration that was being embarked upon by the GRA and the National Identification Authority (NIA) will help the authorities to share important data and identify eligible taxpayers in the informal sector.
According to him, “taxpayers will also not spend time in acquiring TINs as they will use the Ghana Card Identity Number for tax purposes,” he pointed.
Rev. Owusu-Amoah however outlined some strategies his outfit intended to undertake in order to achieve its set-out revenue target of GH¢60 billion for 2021.
GRA, he noted, had since January 1, 2021, introduced new excise tax stamps with enhanced security features which made it difficult to produce duplicates.
“The GRA had adopted strict measures for the distribution and monitoring of the stamps to ensure that only recognized manufacturers and importers of excisable products receive them and that they were all duly accounted for.”
He, however, added the old and new stamps would still remain in circulation until the old stamps were out of stock.
Performance in 2020
He said as at December 2020 GRA had collected GH₵45,338.69 million exceeding the budget by GH₵2,569.19 million thus, with a positive deviation of 6.0%.
Such performance, he explained, represented a nominal growth rate of 3.3% over the same period in 2019.
In 2020, according to him, domestic revenue grew by a nominal rate of 2.8% while Customs collection grew by 4.5%.
“The reasons for this performance can be attributed to factors such as: – Target (GH₵22,153.64 billion) Collection (GH₵22, 212.66) – Target (GH₵9,698.66) Collection (GH₵10,583.37)
– Target (GH₵10,917.20) Collection (GH₵12,583.37),” he said.
Targeted Compliance Measures
“The authority undertook a lot of compliance exercises which unearthed revenue that would have been undetected and also blocked some loopholes.”
He added that audits were strengthened and a new department, the Tax Audit and Quality Assurance Department, was set up and these went a long way to aid revenue mobilization.
Integrated Tax Application and Preparation System
Indicating that his outfit has outlined some strategies it intends to undertake in order to achieve its set-out revenue target of GH¢60 billion for 2021, Rev Owusu-Amoah said the authority partially rolled out the Integrated Tax Application and Preparation System (ITaPS) for online filing of Personal Income Tax for employees.
With payment of taxes online, bulk payments happened through Ghana.Gov, he said, adding that this helped greatly in mobilizing revenue in the face of Covid-19 and helped to limit movement of persons and also decongest our offices.
ICUMS
He noted that total revenue generated from March 1, 2020 to January 9, 2021 through ICUMS was GH₵11,651,635,820.46.
ICUMS was introduced in the course of 2020 with some initial challenges.
BY Samuel Boadi