Government of Ghana to convert all National Identification Numbers to Tax Identification Numbers, here’s why

This, according to him, is aimed at increasing the taxpaying populations in the country.

Already there are almost 2 million existing registered taxpayers and the move is expected the number to about 16 million by the end of this year.

“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 Identification Numbers into Tax Identification Numbers which means we will increase the number of people registered for taxes and beef up from about 2 million to close to 16 million in one year,” he said.

Adding that “Indeed, lending rates are often high partly because of the high information problems in establishing identity and verifying income sources and ownership problems. These have to change if we’re aspiring to be a middle-income country.”

“We have embarked on leveraging on technology to overcome many of our developmental problems and to formalize this informal economy, this is what digitization is going to allow us to do in bringing people into the tax net,” he added.

Dr Bawumia said this at the launch of the Absa Bank Ghana Limited on Monday, February 10 in Accra.

He disclosed that the Ministry of Finance will in the next few months, launch a portal for the delivery of all government services digitally.

The portal which is dubbed; ‘Ghana.Gov’ platform will strive for the efficiency of the public sector, provide easy access and convenience for citizens and to curb revenue linkages.