Monday, April 2, 2012

GRA schools diplomats on tax-reforms

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) says it is in discussions with the diplomatic community and international organisations to deepen tax-compliance and revenue mobilisation.

“The Authority is currently in discussions with the diplomatic community and international organisations to see how they can collect taxes from their staff on behalf of the Authority.

This is part of the on-going taxpayers’ registration and re-registration,” Mr. Paul Kwakye, Project Manager for the e-gov project, said in Accra.

He was speaking at a seminar organised by the Authority for members of the diplomatic community to educate them on the new tax identification number (TIN) system, on tax administration and the re-registration of taxpayers.

In a speech read for him, Commissioner-General of the GRA, Mr. George Blankson, said: “As members of the diplomatic community, it is important that the GRA interacts with you so that your understanding will be enhanced to enable you take advantage of the new system, especially in clearing imported goods.

Businesses and individuals that re-register are allocated new taxpayer identification numbers which enable them to clear goods from the ports.

The registration and re-registration process is aimed at improving the quality of customer records and service delivery, facilitating access to a variety of online government services -- such as filing of returns, payments, appointment scheduling and reducing tax-compliance costs.

Mr. Blankson explained that the interaction also formed part of the e-gov project being implemented to modernise key ministries, departments and agencies; computerise business registration; enhance revenue mobilisation; and provide citizen-friendly services.

“The e-gov project has been designed such that the GRA will be electronically linked to Registrar General’s Department (RGD) to enable it have access to their database to assess details of registered businesses for easy tracking and for tax purposes,” he said.

The e-gov project is a public-private partnership between Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet) -- a customised electronic system established for processing trade and customs documents in Ghana -- and the government, which gave GCNet the mandate to design, finance, build, operate and transfer ownership of an electronic government system to the RGD and GRA.

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