Parliament passes three Bills

Accra, March 11, GNA- Parliament on Thursday passed the University of Education, Winneba, bill and three others on revenue generating agencies in the country.

They are the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) (Amendment) Bill, the Customs and Excise (Duties and Other Taxes) (Amendment) Bill and the Value Added Tax (VAT) (Amendment) Bill were also passed into law. The purpose of the University of Education, Winneba, Bill is to put in place the "necessary legislation to upgrade the status of the University College Of Education, Winneba into a full autonomous University that can award its own degree and diplomas", a memorandum accompanying the Bill said.

The college was established in 1992 and in 2000 a petition was placed before government to accord the Institution a full university status.

The government therefore requested the National Accreditation Board (NAB) to assess the viability of the petition.

NAB reported that the "University College of Education, Winneba, had matured and fulfilled the conditions required of it for its conversion into a full university, hence the Bill to provide the new university with the necessary legislative backing because it relies to a large extent, just as all the government universities, on subvention from the government," the memorandum added.

The Institution now has three campuses in Winneba, Kumasi and Mampong-Ashanti. Its main objective is to provide teachers with professional competence.

The object of the IRS (Amendment) Bill is to amend the Internal Revenue Act, 2000 (Act 592) to effect changes in accordance with the 2004 Budget Statement.

It also seeks to make the Internal Revenue Act, "business friendly and ensure voluntary compliance by the taxpayers," the memorandum said. Portions of the amendment in the new Bill seeks to make a distinction between agro processing business and other processing ventures in the manufacturing sector in view of the special incentives provided in the 2004 budget statement for agro processing business and waste or recycling processing business.

The Customs and Excise (Duties and Other Taxes) (Amendment) Bill seeks to amend the Customs and Excise (Duties and Other Taxes), Act 1996, (Act 512) in respect of rates of duties on specified items in order to implement the proposals in the 2004 Budget.

Government has by the Bill, extended tax relief to imports of lumber for domestic processing. It has also removed VAT on irrigation pumps through the new Bill.

"Similarly, the Bill seeks to remove import VAT and import duty on input for the production of fishing nets and fishing ropes so as to make the cost of fishing less burdensome and also competitive," a memorandum on the Bill said.

The memorandum accompanying the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill said the object of the Bill is to "mitigate the cash flow problems associated with the upfront payment of VAT at importation of raw material inputs imported by local manufacturers...".

It would also remove the import VAT on inputs for fishing nets and twines. The Bill would also give a boost to the music industry by abolishing VAT on some musical instruments. 11 March 04