IRS and Immigration Service urged to collaborate

Hohoe, May 02, GNA- Participants at the second Internal Revenue Service Week at Hohoe have called on the Ghana Immigration (GIS) Service and the revenue agencies to devise stringent tax compliance measures to capture itinerant traders, especially foreigners, who evade tax. They said the activities of traders who peddle fabric, cosmetic products and electrical appliances including pirated compact disks and decks or players were negatively affecting sales of duly registered traders.

These itinerant traders, the participants said, flood the markets with substandard goods that are smuggled into the country through unapproved routes.

As a result, traders sell their commodities cheaply at the expense of Ghanaians who fulfil their tax obligations. They also complained about the porous nature of the tax system, non-enforcement of tax regimes and the failure to abide by the requirements for registering of businesses

They said it was impossible for Ghanaians to do business in Francophone countries without authorization and wondered why the reverse should be the situation in Ghana.

Mr Kingsley Akorlie, a fabric dealer, called on Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) GIS and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to coordinate and harmonies their operations towards rationalizing tax collection the undertaking of business by foreign nationals. The gathering also expressed disgust at the dilapidated IRS building at Hohoe whose roofs lick badly, has torn-out curtains and dirty walls with obsolete type writers and wondered if the mission of the service was only to collect tax for government without any budget for structures.

Mr Jessie Donkor, the Acting Hohoe District Manager of IRS, reassured the gathering that his outfit, CEPS and GIS would harmonize their activities to maximize tax collection including stopping the negative activities of foreign nationals.

He said the Hohoe office was suffering from understaffing, lack of logistic though its area of coverage is vast, stretching from Peki in the South Dayi District to Kete-Krachi in the Krachi West District - covering eight out 15 administrative district of the region. Mr Donkor said a total of 1.7 billion cedis out of 7.9 billion annual targets of 2006 had been collected at the end of March.

He however said the 2005 target of 7.6 billion cedis was not attained as 7.1 billion was collected and blamed the situation partly on understaffing and lack of education among taxpayers.

He observed that most taxpayers failed to file tax returns that could qualify them for tax rebates. 02 May 06