Association of Garages threatens to withhold tax payment

Members of the Takoradi Kokompe chapter of the Ghana National Association of Garages have threatened to withhold payment of taxes to the ruling NDC until the five kilometre deplorable road leading to the Kokompe light industrial area has been re-constructed and tarred.

The angry and apparently embittered mechanics maintain they have had enough of the sweet and empty promises from government with respect to re-construction of the road and therefore summed up their frustrations in a very simple message -'NO ROAD, NO TAXES'.

In fact, they contend that their decision to stop paying taxes to government through the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly and the Internal Revenue Service stems from the collapse of their businesses in the last three years.

“Where does government expect us to find monies for the payment of taxes and tolls when our businesses have collapsed as a result of the poor nature of the road”, they questioned.

A research conducted by the Sekondi-Takoradi Chamber of Commerce and Industries between September and December last year revealed among other things that many shops and stores at Kokompe are relocating to the Takoradi Central market area due to the poor nature of the road with cost of doing business there also shooting up.

The remaining cash-strapped shop owners are also getting rid of their employees and apprentices because they cannot afford to pay them any longer.

“The least said about health hazards being posed by the rough and dusty road to human lives, the better,” the group charged.

The Kokompe light industrial area once upon a time offered jobs to over five thousand people in Sekondi-Takoradi but things have changed thanks to the poor road linking the area to the Takoradi township.

At a business executive meeting organized by the Chamber in Takoradi last Friday to discuss appropriate strategies to be adopted in committing government to honour its re-construction promise to the mechanics, they also threatened to block the road to prevent vehicular movement to and from the area.

This action, they said, would be followed with a massive demonstration through principal streets of Takoradi to show the Mills-Mahama led government that they really mean business.

The New Statesman gathered that the meeting which was attended by over fifty members of the association, staff from the Internal Revenue Services, the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan assembly and representatives of some financial institutions, formed part of the Chamber's business advocacy project being sponsored by the BUSAC Fund.