Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) says the Authority was taken aback by the National Identification Authority’s (NIA) decision to take their long-standing disagreements into the public domain instead of resolving them through dialogue.
Anthony Kwasi Sarpong, speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, August 21, described the public statements made by the NIA as surprising and counterproductive.
He insisted that the leadership of the two agencies had already met and agreed to discuss the matter further.
“So the issue that has recently risen in the media that, let me say, allegedly, National Identification Authority indicating that GRA owes them millions of cedis, and for which reason they are denying GRA of the use of the card.
“Let’s step back and recall that in the previous administration, government indicated that the use of the Ghana Card should become the tax identification for individuals. You and I do know that the National Identification Authority is funded by government, and this project has been funded by government.
“What the data has been created is for institutions like GRA and others to be able to use that platform to further other government’s work, and that’s what we are doing, as far as the individual taxpayers are concerned.”
He noted that before he assumed office, there was an arrangement between the two institutions over data use and payments, but it was not a finalised agreement.
“Let me acknowledge that before I took over this reign, or before 2025 there was some form of legacy arrangement between the NIA and GRA. Part of it was for NIA to say that as GRA receives the data, some amount has to be paid to NIA.
“But the other part was also that GRA made available all its offices nationwide for NIA to operate. So as we speak today, NIA has offices in GRA offices for which GRA does not pay, for which NIA does not pay anything to GRA. But these arrangements were not conclusive.”
Sarpong explained that upon taking office, he met with the NIA’s Director-General to chart a way forward.
“So as far as the demand for debt is concerned, when I took over, I have from leadership perspective, engaged the Director General of NIA. We met here in GRA offices, and we discussed the matter, and we agreed that as leaders, we need to look at the issues and resolve them subsequently.
“I’ve also had a conversation with them on how GRA believes the matter should be, and how they should. So for us as GRA it came as a matter of surprise, that something we are speaking on as legacy, as leaders we came to meet, we have opened the door and accepted them to discuss further and resolve, so it was a huge surprise to hear our sister agency trying to take the matter to the media and solve it there.”
He warned that disputes between state institutions must not be handled in ways that disrupt service to the public.
“It’s important to recognize that when you have problems, you cannot solve it all in the media. It’s a matter that we need to sit, to dialog, to discuss in a spirit of collaborative manner and solve it. So you will notice that from GRA perspective, we have extended another professional arm to our sister agency to say, look, let’s sit down.
“We know there are issues in this area. We don’t fully agree with your assertions and claims, but we are prepared to lead a way to discuss and to resolve the matter. So we’ve extended a hand to them to lead and resolve.
“I believe that that is what leadership is for, and the two of us are government institutions to serve the people. Our actions should not lead to destabilizing service to the people or disturbing our core mandate.”
Addressing reports that the standoff was affecting importers, Sarpong described the claims as false.
“What also came out was the negative or the incorrect news to say that because NIA has taken that action, people cannot clear their stations. As you speak right now, it is not an accurate account.
“So if you look at the tax administration system today, we have the individuals, which we are using the Ghana Card, and businesses which GRA generates by itself. Most of these importers run on business TIN. We don’t rely on Ghana Card.
“And, therefore, it couldn’t have been that if you don’t have your Ghana Card at use, you cannot import. So I want to use this medium to assure all importers that one, that is not the situation. We have not had any single complaint from any importer. The general public should be assured that that is not the situation.”
He further clarified that existing taxpayers are not affected by the matter.
“Indeed, once your Ghana Card is once validated in your system, it’s not something we validate all the time. So if you are already in our system, you are not impacted.
“It is only needed when a new taxpayer offices and they show their Ghana Card, then we go to NIA and say, somebody has showed their Ghana Card. Is it issued by you? And therefore, for existing taxpayers, both corporate and individuals, this matter is not having any impact at all. And therefore that’s why, as we say, that it was inaccurate.”
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