Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has expressed optimism that the government will increase the number of registered taxpayers to at least sixteen million by the end of this year.

According to him, the move will have a positive impact on the revenue collected from the taxpaying population.

He explained that the move 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.

Speaking at the official ceremony to rebrand Barclays Bank into Absa Ghana Limited, he said: “currently less than 2 million people are registered to pay by the end of 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 digitization 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” he added.