Public Agenda

The Public Agenda reports that officials charged with collecting taxes from traders engaged in the cooking oil trade in the Western Region, have turned the trade into a personal gold mine and millions of cedis may be vanishing into private pockets even if the revenue generating agencies manage to achieve or exceed their targets. In a front page story headlined "Gov't loses over 400 million cedis in oil deals", the Public Agenda says a visit to the Jomoro District about a month ago, showed widespread malpractice over import duty and sales tax on imported "Dinor" oil and coconut oil. The paper says a prohibitive tax on imported Dinor oil currently exists to discourage the importation of the product and protect similar products such as "Frytol" which is manufactured locally. It says a similar tax also exists on imported copra to protect local producers, but indications, however, are that the imported oil still finds its way in great quantities into the country due to malpractice in the administration of these taxes. The Public Agenda says revenue that should accrue to the government from taxes including penalties, is also diverted into private pockets.