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VAT Service urged to intensify revenue
drive
Cape Coast July 26, Ghanadot/GNA - Nana Ato Arthur, Central
Regional Minister, on Thursday urged the Value Add Tax (VAT)
Service not to relax in its efforts at removing all barriers
that hinder the nation's revenue generation drive.
He said it was imperative to evolve pragmatic strategies
that would help widen the tax net since the nation needed a
sustainable domestic revenue base to wholly finance it
development agenda.
Nana Arthur said this in a speech read for him at the
Central Region launch of the "VAT Flat Rate Scheme" (VFRS)
for the retail trade sector, in Cape Coast.
The VFRS, which would become operational in September this
year, is a 3 percent tax that would be collected by only
retailers whose annual turn-over is below GH¢120 million
(1.2 billion cedis)
He said tax revenue had grown at an annual average of about
30 percent and supported about 60 percent of government
expenditure budget, adding that the role of tax revenue in
the fiscal management of the economy could not be
overestimated.
Nana Arthur entreated all stakeholders not to rest on their
oars but to continue to lend their support to ensure the
success of the scheme, which was aimed at widening the
nation's tax net.
The minister pointed out that compliance was bedrock of any
successful tax system and that it was for this reason that
the government in this year's budget statement and economic
policy had proposed the institution of the VAT Clearance
Certificate (VCC) dispensation to augment the efforts of the
VAT Service at improving compliance.
Nana Arthur said the proper implementation of the VAT
Clearance Certificate dispensation coupled with sound
customer care values and practices by VAT officials, would
go a long way to promote general awareness of the VAT system
among the business community, especially the retail trade
sector.
He commended the VAT Service and the Ghana Union Traders
Association (GUTA) working group for coming out with the
scheme and urged staff of the Service to pledge their
commitment to the successful implementation of the
dispensation and also deepen client service standard of the
VAT Service.
He announced that for an efficient and effective
implementation of the scheme the VAT Service had promised to
provide three vehicles fitted with public address systems to
GUTA to complement the tax education drive of the Service.
Mr Anthony Ewereko Minlah, VAT Commissioner, in a speech
read for him, gave the assurance that the Service would
continue to collaborate with not only business communities
but also with other government departments as well as key
stakeholder to exchange and match information to identify
areas of potential non-compliance so that appropriate
strategies would be put in place to tackle them.
He warned that the Service would not hesitate to apply the
relevant sanctions to any defaulting trader and urged all
traders and businesses to voluntarily register if they had
not already done so, stressing that there were prescribed
sanctions for eligible businesses that failed to register.
Mr Minlah appealed to consumers to always demand VAT/NHIL
invoices for services and goods they pay for, this he
stressed was the best way they could assist the Service to
ensure compliance with the VAT Act.
He said staff of the Service had been given adequate
training to handle challenges that might crop up during the
implementation of the VFRS and that more than 3,000 new
retailers had so far been registered under the scheme.
GNA
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