Government has revealed that it will begin rolling out the automation of all tax clearing certificates, TCCs, from October this year.
This is part of efforts to promote tax compliance.
This latest move is aimed at reducing the voluntary use of powers and its attendant alleged corruption by public officials in the country.
Prior to this, the process of obtaining clearance certificates had been done manually with the issuance of handwritten certificates over the years.
The process has been characterised by delays in issuance by GRA; challenges in verifying genuine TCCs by recipients; the use of Fake TCCs; and alleged malpractices by some tax officials, among others.
Disclosing the news at the 10th Annual International Tax Conference in Accra, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia said there was the need to automate the tax system to enable the nation rake in more revenue for development.
“Looking at the problems associated with tax clearance certificate, I have directed the leadership of the Ghana Revenue Authority to automate the process of obtaining a clearance certificate. And I’m glad to announce that the process is completed and will go live in October this year.
“You apply for the certificate online, the system will do the necessary background checks to ensure that you have no outstanding tax payment; and then issue an electronic tax clearance certificate on your mobile phone”, he said.
The Vice President also noted as part of efforts to ensure that Ghanaians become tax compliant, all public services would require a tax clearance certificate before rendering any services.
He further noted that a total of 847,597 tax returns have been filed online as of July 2022.
Ghana has a major challenge in the area of domestic revenue mobilisation, with the tax/GDP ratio being 13.5 percent compared to 27 percent for South Africa and 34 percent for the advanced (OECD) countries, thus broadening the tax net is critical.
