CEPS Exceeds Target In Ashanti Reagion

Kumasi, Aug 13, - The Ashanti Regional branch of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) exceeded its tax revenue collection for last year by 12.5 billions cedis. Mr C.K.D. Mensah, the Assistant Commissioner in charge, said the region collected 60.1 billion cedis as against its target of 47.6 billion cedis. Mr Mensah said this at the launching of the Ashanti Region CEPS tax education week on the theme ''Indirect taxes, revenue mobilization for development'' in Kumasi today. He said the excellent performance for last year placed Kumasi fourth after Tema, Accra and Takoradi and therefore appealed to all and sundry to honour their tax obligations to enable the branch to realise its target of 76.4 billion cedis. Mr D. O. Agyekum, Ashanti Regional Minister, who launched the week, urged CEPS to remove all bottle-necks in the tax system to make tax payment less cumbersome. Mr Agyekum called on CEPS to introduce pragmatic strategies to ensure the efficient collection of taxes by plugging all loopholes in the revenue collection machinery. If strict measures are instituted against vices like corruption, bribery and misappropriation of revenue, there could be substantial increase in government revenue. Mr John Gasinu, an official of the Value Added Tax (VAT) Secretariat, denied that small-scale business entrepreneurs would be over-burdened with extensive record keeping with the introduction of VAT. VAT should not be perceived as an additional tax on existing ones. Rather VAT is intended to streamline and enhance revenue collection.