Accra, May 31, GNA - Finatrade Group of Companies is to set up a six million-dollar pasta company in the country for the local and the West African Market, Mr Krishnan Ramachandran, Group Financial Manger, said on Tuesday.

The Company, which would be christened Dry Foods Processing Company Limited, would employ between 300 and 400 people and would produce about 20,000 tonnes of pasta annually.

The Company would start production by the end of July, he said, when he presented a statement of account and corporate tax cheque for three billion cedis to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on behalf of Akuafo Adanfo, a cocoa buying subsidiary of the Finatrade Group. The amount is double the tax it paid last year.

He said the Company made a net profit of nine billion cedis in 2004 adding: "The year was indeed a good one."

Mr Kwame Adjei-Djan, Acting Commissioner of IRS, said the IRS appreciated taxpayers, who performed their civic rights and responsibilities without being chased.

"This show of positive response gives us the encouragement that tax education is yielding some level of impact."

He noted that if all taxpayers would follow the Finatrade example, stationery and time wasted in writing letters to recalcitrant taxpayers would save the service time and money.