The Ministry of Finance has revealed that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) registered 1,394,842 taxpayers in 2019.
This increased the total number of registered taxpayers with Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) to 3,394,488 as of the end of 2019.
This was contained in the ministry’s budget performance report for 2019 presented to Parliament by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.
Presenting the Finance Committee’s report on the budget performance, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah said the Finance Ministry “undertook some major technological initiatives to offer enhanced online services to taxpayers,” in the year under review.
“These included the online Taxpayer TIN registration, introduction of the Integrated Tax Application and Preparation System App (iTAPS) to encourage voluntary filing and payment and deployment of an integrated management system for customs administration,” he added.
2019 Budget and Expenditure
For the 2019 financial year, the Ministry of Finance and its six agencies namely Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD), Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Public Procurement Authority (PPA) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Institute of Accountancy Training (IAT) and the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) were allocated a total budget of GHC563,808,391.
This was reduced by 5.4% in the 2019 mid-year budget review to GHc533,551,480. The ministry explained that GHC306,146,170 came from the government, GHC199,482,972 from DP Funds, GHC24,944,309 from IGF and GHC2,978,028 from ABFA.
“Actual expenditure outturn for the 2019 financial year amounted to GH¢524,522,567.39 representing 98.3% of the revised budget.”
According to the Finance Committee, it observed that real GDP growth made a strong recovery from 3.4% in 2016, growing at 8.1% and 6.3% in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Dr Yeboah said for 2019, real GDP was projected to grow by 7.6% but the target was revised downwards to 7% due to the lower than expected crude oil and gas volumes envisaged at the time of the budget.
“Provisional estimates for the first three quarters of 2019 indicate an average real GDP growth rate of 6.0 percent, thus being on track to achieving the revised 7% target for the entire year 2019.”Source: Pulse Ghana
