Registered Taxpayers To Be Increased To 16million By End Of 2020 – Bawumia: Ghanatoday.net

Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has disclosed that government would increase the number of registered taxpayers to at least 16million by the end of this year.

This he says should also impact on the revenue collected from the taxpaying population.

Dr. Bawumia explained that this should be achieved through the transfer of all national ID numbers collated under the various card registrations to Tax Identification Numbers to track people who are yet to be captured under the tax net.

Already, the GRA is working to exceed its revenue target for this year after hitting the mark last year.

Dr. Bawumia made the remarks at the official ceremony to rebrand Barclays Bank Ghana into Absa Ghana Limited.

“Currently less than 2 million people are registered to pay taxes but by the end of this year, we will start converting all the national ID numbers into tax identification numbers so you will bring people into the tax net and this is what digitisation is going to allow us to do.”

“The introduction of a digital license and vehicle registration, online application of passport, paperless port system, online renewal of the National Health Insurance membership have actually curbed the frustrations, the petty bribery and corruption that Ghanaians face in their daily lives when they encounter these institutions.”

Many say government’s digitization efforts had led to reforms at various agencies.

The introduction of the technology at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, for instance, has gradually eliminated the ”Goro boys” which was formerly a problem.

Government intends to introduce more reforms to push its digitization agenda.