The plan by the Ghana Revenue Authority to replace Tax Identification Numbers with the Ghana Card numbers and the concern expressed by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) over the country’s debt situation are some of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Wednesday.
The Graphic reports that beginning next year, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) will replace Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) with the Ghana Card numbers.
This will enable the authority to access information from other government agencies, including the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), the Driver ad Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA), the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and the Lands Commission, to enhance its operations.
The Chief Revenue Officer of the GRA, Clement Amankwah-Bonsu, said this at a dialogue on taxation in Accra yesterday.
“You will realise that the Ghana Card number is unique to every individual. With the TIN, some people, in their attempt to beat the system, managed to get additional TINs, so that at any point in time they would decide which number to use to their advantage. But with the Ghana Card coming into being, I think some of these challenges will be solved,” he explained.
The National Multi-Stakeholder Tax Dialogue-Agenda, organised by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, formed part of the Promoting Progressive Property Taxation and Tax Compliance project in the country.
Mr Amankwah-Bonsu said the restructuring of the Domestic Tax Revenue Division of the GRA had brought about improved tax compliance in the country.
In addition, it had resulted in prompt taxpayer services and created convenience for taxpayers, he said.
Under the restructuring, with the country being divided into 10 zones, there were designated area offices set up with taxpayer centres, he added.
The newspaper says that the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has expressed concern about the country’s debt situation and called for urgent interventions to prevent it from getting out of hand.
The bank urged the government to consider re-profiling or restructuring the debt to ensure that the country stayed within the global debt sustainability thresholds.
The Governor of BoG, Dr Ernest Addison, gave the advice at a press conference on May 23, after noting that it was clear that the country had issues with debt sustainability.
He noted that while increments in the central bank’s policy rate had a negative effect on the debt problem, the bank would not sacrifice inflation for debt management.
“You do not solve a debt problem by neglecting your inflation problem.
“You have to deal with your inflation problem and find other ways of resolving your debt issues,” the Governor said, noting that debt re-profiling and restructuring were the best options under the circumstance.
Dr Addison was responding to concerns that the increases in the bank’s policy rate had the tendency to raise the cost of deficit financing, which would intend worsen the debt problem.
The concerns followed the increment in the policy rate by 200 basis points (bps) to 19 per cent for May to help moderate demand and dowse the inflationary pressures.
The latest increment in the policy rate by the Monetary Policy Rate (MPC), which Dr Addison chairs, was the second in a row this year.
The Graphic also reports that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration yesterday[May 31, 2022] signed a grant agreement of $200 million with the government of Japan for the implementation of a Japanese-funded scholarship programme for government officials.
Under the annual programme, 13 officials will be sponsored to undertake master’s degree courses and a doctorate degree in Japan this year.
The programme is being funded by the government of Japan under its ‘Project for human resource development scholarship (JDS)’ introduced in 2012 through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
It is aimed at offering young government officials the opportunity to pursue higher education in Japan to enhance their ability to actively engage in the implementation of social and economic development programmes.
Those who will pass the selection interview are expected to depart for Japan in August this year.
A Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong, who signed for the country, expressed gratitude to the government and the people of Japan for the support, saying: “Human resource development adds value and enhances employee skills needed to perform duties better.”
He assured the Japanese government that beneficiaries would be judiciously selected to build their capacity to contribute to the accelerated development of the country.
The Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Mochizuki Hisanobu, who signed for Japan, said the core of his country’s development was investment in human resource.
“We aim to extend this experience to our friends, such as Ghana, who are trying to address various development challenges. The key concept underpinning the JDS programme is the conviction to build human resource.
The Ghanaian Times says that Travelex, a leading global foreign exchange company has reiterated its commitment to the Ghanaian market as it considers it a strategic market for the company.
To this end, the company had engaged the Central Bank and some commercial banks in the country to take stock of the company’s performance over the years and chart the way forward.
Speaking to journalists in Accra, the head of Wholesale Banknotes and Director at Travelex in the UK, Angela Smith, said some company management members paid a working visit to Ghana to discuss their value propositions to its stakeholders.
She said the COVID-19 pandemic had affected the business resulting in the revenue decline but she was confident that the company’s outlook looks brighter.
Ms Smith said, “For this post-COVID-19, we are trying to link with our clients to get back our business running. There is now a very positive outlook”.
”We are one of the market-leading specialist providers of foreign exchange. With over 45 years of operating we have built a network of foreign exchange stores and developed Travelex as a trusted and widely recognized brand in international money,” she said.
She said the mission of the company was to simplify customers’ access to international money.
She said,“our retail outsourcing and wholesale banknotes business verticals are supported by a state of the art fully automated cash processing facility that is the UK’s only automated solution for cash order assembly and is our key differentiation in the market.”
“Travelex remains a big player in the foreign exchange supply business and has all the necessary logistics in place to satisfy the needs of all clients in Ghana, across the African continent, and all parts of the world where it operates,” she said.
She said as part of the visit offered training to some commercial banks on counterfeit money detection.
GIK/APA