Major Revenue Collection Institutions Declare War On Tax Dodgers

Accra, (Greater Accra) 18 - Sept.

Defaulting tax-payers have been given up to Wednesday, September 24, to pay up or have their names published in the newspapers. Mr. David Adom, Commissioner of Internal Revenue Service (IRS), warned today at a press conference in Accra that the Service would continue to pursue the collection of outstanding taxes vigorously. He said IRS would re-equip its audit section to enable its personnel to unearth schemes that help people to evade tax. IRS and the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service organised the press conference at which a number of measures were announced to ensure that the tax-paying public honoured their obligations under the tax laws. The two major revenue collection institutions expressed their determination to plug all loop-holes in the tax system to ensure that all taxes are paid. They expressed concern that tax-payers have failed to comply with the provisions of the tax laws. Mr. Adom said the Service is not happy about the situation and stressed that ''it is the responsibility of the tax-payer under the Income Tax Law to declare his income to the IRS''. He said the attitude of the Ghanaian is manifest in the pattern of contributions of the various groups of tax-payers. He said in 1996, out of a total of 424.5 billion cedis, the tax burden fell "on the shoulders of the relatively easy to tax groups". These included employees and a few large companies who are either banks, multinationals or manufacturing companies. ''We owe Ghanaians a moral responsibility to end this inequity in the tax system by ensuring that every citizen pays his or her appropriate taxes,'' the IRS Commissioner said, adding that the Service is prepared to deal with the problem. Mr. Adom said the non-filing of returns, non-payment of taxes on due date, evasion, artificial or fictitious transactions are some of the impediments that could contribute to any shortfall in the performance of IRS. Dr. Charles Asembri, CEPS Commissioner, said the warehousing regime and arrears in the payment by manufacturers of excise and domestic sales have engaged the attention of the new management. On warehousing, he said the CEPS management felt the need to review certain aspects of ''this operation to make it more relevant and efficient''. With effect from October one, duties on all goods taken out of warehouses would be assessed at the tariffs and exchange rates operative at the time of ex-warehousing and not at the rates prevailing at the time of importation. Goods in bonded warehouses should be taken out within a period of three months. Dr. Asembri said, however, that a further three months may be allowed and that goods not cleared after this period would be removed to the state warehouse and treated as not entered, that is, not properly accounted for. In effect such unentered goods will be sold by public auction to recover the taxes, Dr. Asembri added. Dr. Asembri said goods once warehoused may be ex-warehoused only after a period of 14 days after the date of warehousing. He reminded manufacturers to settle their excise duty and sales tax arrears by September 24 failing which CEPS will publish defaulters names in the media. The Service will then invoke the law to recover all amounts due. Dr. Asembri cautioned customs officers, smugglers, customs house agents about the high incidence of collusion in dodging payment of tax that "they would be dealt with drastically according to the law when caught". He said CEPS will fully co-operate with its sister organisations in ensuring maximum revenue collection and mentioned the introduction of tax-payer identification numbers (TIN) and integrated auditing as some of the measures towards such co-operation. Dr. Asembri mentioned efforts being made to remove bottle-necks at the ports, including an integration of Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) and CEPS Information systems. "All these are meant to ensure free flow of trade. We shall continue to constantly review the procedures to achieve the objective of ensuring quick clearance of goods from the ports and frontier entry and exit points".