‘GRA must take charge of national identification’

After attempting for about a decade to develop a national identification database, it is still a far cry for the country to reach that goal.

Although the National Identification Authority (NIA) visited majority of regions in Ghana to collect biometric data of citizens, it was able to issue the cards to only a few Ghanaians, mainly due to funding challenges.

Last year, there was another unsuccessful attempt to draft in the private sector for the registration of foreign nationals in the country to generate revenue to support the larger national identification system.

But lecturer and economic analyst, Dr John Gatsi, says the way to go is to house the national identification system at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to enable it to serve the twin purpose of citizen identification and facilitating tax compliance.

Dr Gatsi, a lecturer in Finance at the University of Cape Coast, who spoke to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS, said housing the national identification database within the GRA would enable it to meaningfully deploy electronic channels to widen the tax net, track tax payers and increase tax compliance.

Tax operations in 2016

The government plans to use electronic systems such as the Geographic Positioning Systems (GPS) to include more tax payers on the tax register. The GRA has already mapped Businesses in the Greater Accra Region for a start.

“If the national identification system is housed at the GRA, it will serve as a good measure to track taxpayers and collect taxes. This is because before you can access any public service, your tax compliance could first be ascertained,” he told the paper.

Dr Gatsi said the database would help the GRA’s pro-compliance electronic systems to work better, rather than separating the database from the tax authority, since identification was at the core of tax collection.

This year, the government is planning to implement a new tax regime which will replace and overhaul the old. The Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896), which seeks to simplify the income tax regime and improve tax compliance, is expected to yield additional revenue equivalent to 0.3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Total tax collections for 2016 is estimated at GH¢28.87 billion, representing 18.2 per cent of GDP and a 25.4 per cent increase over the projected out-turn for 2015, according to the 2016 Budget and National Economic Policy.