Use Technology To Administer Taxes – Bawumia Charges GRA

Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has urged the Domestic Tax Revenue Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority to take advantage of technology to manage taxes in the country.

He said the Authority must leverage technology to implement an e-solution platform – the total revenue integrated processing system to administer taxes.

Dr. Bawumia made this known at the closing ceremony of the 38th Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators (CATA) Annual Technical Conference, in Accra last Friday.

He said the country had reached a stage in her development, where it could not progress without adopting appropriate, current and improved technology to make tax administration convenient for taxpayers.

The Vice president therefore said the use of technology will reduce the turnaround time for taxpayers to do business.

“With this, tax administration will not only reduce the turn-around time for taxpayers to do business but will also improve service delivery,” Bawumia said.

The five-day conference, which was on the theme: “Leveraging Technology to Enhance Revenue Administration”, brought together 209 participants from 18 Commonwealth countries and International Tax Organizations.

The discussion of the conference was developed around two sub topics; “Facilitating, Monitoring and Enabling Compliance through Technology and Equipping Staff with skills to deliver in an Increasingly Digital Environment.

A communiqué issued at the end of the conference also underscored the need for deploying technology to maximize receipts from taxes.

Mr. Duncan Onduru, Executive Director of CATA, read the communiqué, which said the Association recognized that domestic revenue mobilization played a key role towards the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Communiqué said many Member countries were undertaking or considering far reaching reforms and a modernization agenda with the aim of improving their internal processes, systems and procedures to respond to the evolving needs of the taxpayers and changing business environment.

It said recognizing the increasing importance of digitization was a critical feature of tax administration of the Century; the Association adopted the theme of the conference.

It emphasized that investment in technology was critical to responding to the emerging business models as well as managing the cost of tax collection and improving compliance.

Source: thePublisher