Educational tax messages must be in local language – DCE
The District Chief Executive of Jomoro, Mr Sylvester Nuamah Dadieh, has appealed to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to package their tax educational messages in local languages.
He said this would enable the people to understand the messages and appreciate the need to honour their tax obligations for the government to earn enough funds for the provision of social amenities.
Mr Dadieh made the appeal at a tax education forum, on Tuesday, organised by the GRA with its Customs Division, at Elubo in the Jomoro District of the Western Region.
The forum was under the theme: “Integration of Revenue Authorities, a Way to Maximize Revenue and Improve Services to Tax Payers.”
According to the DCE, the current situation where tax educational messages were printed only in English did not make the people to understand the need to pay taxes.
He explained that hospitals, schools, roads and other social amenities were provided by the government with tax money and urged Ghanaians to honour their tax obligations for more development projects.
Mr Daniel Mensah, the Chief Collector of the Customs Division at the Jewi Wharf Border, near Half Assini, said the forum had been carefully designed to offer their stakeholders the opportunity to interact with officers of the various revenue agencies.
He said they had recorded frequent disagreements over tax and revenue issues between officers and customers, which often jeopardized their efforts at achieving their revenue targets.
To address these, Mr Mensah said, the Public Affairs Department of the GRA organised the forum.
Mr Francis Kofi Andor, Deputy Commissioner, Communication and Public Affairs Department of Customs, Mr Peter Baah, Acting Western Regional Director of Customs and Mr Sammy Quarmene, the Elubo Sector Commander, were the facilitators.
They addressed issues relating to the Integration and Modernization of the Revenue Agencies, Domestic Direct and Indirect Taxes, Procedure and Processing and Custom Duties and Taxes.
Nana Nyanzu Angovi II, chief of Elubo, who chaired the function, expressed concern about the increasingly smuggling activities in the area.
The chief, therefore, appealed to traders and importers to use the approved routes and pay the necessary taxes on their goods to enable the government to earn more money for development projects.
Source: GNA