The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta has indicated that out of the total population of 30.8 million, registered voter population of 17,027,941 as of 2020.
He added that only 2,364,348 persons are bearing the burden of the entire population as taxpayers as at August 2021;
He said, only 1,643,839 persons about captured by SSNIT as active contributors to Tier 1 pensions and 2,107,322 (less than 10 per cent of the total population) as active contributors to Tier 2 as at June 2021.
Reading the government budget statement for the 2022 fiscal year on Wednesday, November 17, he emphasized that, only 45,109 entities are registered as corporate taxpayers.
He also revealed that only 54,364 persons are registered as self-employed taxpayers at the Ghana Revenue Authority.
Again, only 136,198 entities are registered businesses at the Registrar-General’s Dept. as at August 2021 of which 80 per cent are self-employed.
Findings also show that Greater Accra contributes almost 90 per cent of our domestic tax and the Ashanti, Western and Eastern regions together contribute barely to 3 per cent of domestic taxes.
On Policy Initiatives, Mr Ofori-Atta says domestic revenue mobilization is the key to making the vision of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ a reality.
“We cannot, therefore, as a Nation continue to depend on only 8.2 per cent of our citizens to carry the burden of 30.8 million people. This is unsustainable and defeats all the tenets of economic prudence and moral justice,” he said.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Evans Boateng
