Dear Editor,

I am happy to see such a tremendous response of people trying to acquire their Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN).

While it appears like a headache in the beginning, as any new venture usually is, it is the right and proper way to go. TIN like the famous Social Security Number (SSN) of the United States helps to bring order and control in a nation. Through it, law-compliant citizens are not only protected, but the criminal minded ones could be easily found, or traced. If it is not the aim at this time, the police need to work with the GRA and government to make this possible. In other words once a citizen is stopped, they have to produce ID, and through the ID number or Tin number, the police by just going to a computer or making a call at any time can trace the background of the individual within minutes.

TIN will also help to bring into the tax system those who have not been paying taxes all their lives, and who tend to see taxes as a burden, and something to hide from. People such as sub-contractors, mini-bus drivers, mini-bus conductors, fishermen, fruit and vegetable vendors, taxi-drivers, free-lancing carpenters, masons, etc., everyone needs to be brought into the system so that they all make a contribution to the nation.

In this way those who are already in the system will not be pressed to make up for targets set by GRA, all will have to pay their share.

Yours faithfully,

Roshan Khan