Don’t aid and abet tax evasion, Minister tells tax officers
Mr. Paul Evans Aidoo, Western Regional Minister, on Tuesday called on tax officers to jealously guard against pilfering, under-invoicing and all negations to ensure an effective tax system for the country.
He made the call in an address read for him at a tax education seminar organized by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) at Takoradi.
The seminar was under the theme, “Integration of Revenue Agencies: A One-Stop Service for Taxpayers”.
Mr. Aidoo said tax officers must endeavour to simplify tax policies so that the citizenry would willingly pay taxes.
He said this would also enable them to find out whether government is using their taxes judiciously adding, “By so doing, taxpayers would have no doubt in their minds as to meeting their tax obligations”.
They should also use a lot of tact and be patient in tax administration to make it less cumbersome to collect tax and less painful to the taxpayer, Mr. Aidoo said.
Mr. Aidoo noted that the integration of the Internal Revenue Service and the VAT Service into the Ghana Revenue Authority is a one-stop service to taxpayers because it saves time, resources as it speeds up the process of doing business in the country.
He said every good governance system goes with taxation and in that direction, the government would do all it could to support revenue agencies to rake in more revenue for development.
Mr. Aidoo said empowering the Chartered Institute of Taxation, Ghana, to certify tax professionals in the country would help in the socio-economic development drive of the country.
“Backing the Institute of Taxation by law would go a long way to assist government and taxpayers in resolving issues relating to taxation matters, he said.
In a welcome address, Mr. James Nyantakyi, Western Regional Director of the Domestic Tax Revenue Department of GRA, said the main objective of the tax reforms is to create a modern revenue authority.
He said the reforms are to bring the GRA at par with similar organizations in other African countries, which are responsible for raising revenue to meet public expenditure, safeguarding society’s welfare and promoting economic growth.
Mr. Nyantakyi said Integration of the Revenue Agencies would improve efficiency and effectiveness of revenue mobilization and further simplify and rationalize revenue administration in the country.
He said the key concept of the modernization process is centred on segmentation of taxpayers, self-Assessment, voluntary compliance, risk management, equity and fairness and full use of information technology.
Mr. Nyantakyi said the seminar is tailored to throw more light on these concepts and let taxpayers know their duties and rights under the law and to get them involved as partners in national development.
Mr. Kobby Okyere Darko-Mensah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Takoradi, said the tax net should be spread wide so that no sector of the economy would feel overtaxed.
Nana Kobina Nketsia V, Omanhene of Essikado Traditional Area, presided.
Source: GNA