No TIN, no Free SHS from 2019

Students enjoying the Free Senior High School policy risk losing out by September 2019 if their parents fail to get Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) by that time.

Additionally, people without the TIN cannot subscribe to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), acquire a passport, register their vehicles and lands, open bank accounts or access other public services.

Mr Anthony Selom Dzadzra, a Director at the Revenue Policy Division, Ministry of Finance, told the GNA on the sidelines of a Post-Budget Sensitization workshop for journalists in Accra on Monday, 19 November that the directive was outlined in the 2019 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government.

In that regard, he said, every citizen that transacts business of any sort with any government institution and also accesses other social interventions must acquire a TIN to facilitate that process.

Mr Dzadzra said the enforcement of the directive would enable the government to generate sufficient revenue to propel its infrastructure development agenda.

“For us to go ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’, we have to generate revenue in this country and everybody needs to pay a little tax. Therefore, one of the ways of realizing this is to make sure everybody is known through the TIN,’’ he said.

“This will enable the revenue authorities to easily identify taxpayers and those who have not been captured under the tax net.”

Mr Dzadzra noted that the long-term vision of the government is to reduce import taxes so that manufacturing companies can import machinery to increase production.

This, according to him, would enable manufacturing firms to expand their businesses and employ more people.

He said the government could then take direct and indirect taxes from the firms in addition to the income taxes that workers pay, to shore up its revenue.

He said it was prudent for companies that give commercial loans to the government to pay consumption taxes, which would serve as a means to streamlining the tax exemption regime.

The government has projected to spend GHC73.4 billion in the 2019 Budget and mobilize GHC58.7 billion in revenue through taxes and levies.