2,144,961
The number of Ethiopian tax payers who have given their finger prints to the Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority (ERCA) as of the first week of march 2013. ERCA has registered 127,574 finger prints through online and offline methods in the second quarter of the 2012/13 fiscal year. The biometric card production has also reached 1,447,021.
ERCA started collecting finger prints of taxpayers when it launched the National Identification System (NIS) on July 14, 2009, in Addis Ababa.
The finger prints will be used to develop the National Identification Number (NIN) intended to replace the current Tax Identification Number (TIN) by adding finger prints with the tax payer’s name, date of birth, address and photo details which now constitute the TIN.
Reports from ERCA indicate that the current system of issuing TIN allows a single tax payer to have multiple TINs by changing the spelling of their names. This will come to an end when all tax payers give finger prints along with photographs and the details included in the tax payers’ earlier identification numbers.
Ethiopian Business Review
