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31.08.2009 Business & Finance

Otumfuo wants nananom, revenue agencies collaboration… To improve tax paying culture among Ghanaians

31.08.2009 LISTEN
By Ernest Best Anane, - Ghanaian Chronicle

THE ASANTEHENE, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has called on the traditional authorities to help the revenue agencies to improve upon the tax paying culture of Ghanaians.

This, he said, would enable the nation to raise enough revenue for developmental projects. Otumfuo Osei Tutu said this in a speech read on his behalf by Daasebre Osei Bonsu II, Mamponhene, at the joint workshop with the Ashanti Region House of Chiefs and the Revenue Agencies Governing Board on the theme: Improving Tax Culture - The role of Traditional Authorities in Kumasi.”

The revenue agencies that attended the workshop included the Customs, Excise and Preventive Services (CEPS), Valued Added Tax (VAT) Service, and Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The Asante King urged the chiefs to help in the education of their subjects and the people on tax payments, because they were highly respected and influential in society, and that people would be prepared to pay their taxes voluntarily, if the payers are properly informed and educated, and advice revenue agencies to cooperate with the chiefs, in order to help them achieve their goal.

Mr. Kofi Boakye of the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB), in a presentation, also expressed the need for nananom to collaborate with the agencies to improve tax paying culture of Ghanaians, and appealed to the traditional authorities to provide platforms at durbars and festivals for the revenue agencies to educate their subjects on taxation and the benefits of taxation to national development, and the fact that it was one's civic responsibility to pay taxes at such functions.

He said the agencies would set up information stands at such festivals and durbars to disseminate tax information to the public.

The agencies would also organise their own durbars and programmes, to which Nananom would be invited to preside over, or serve as guests of honour.

Mr. Boakye further observed that administration facilitation with traditional authorities may also help, which he said, would involve setting up a system of contact persons within the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), traditional authorities and the revenue agencies to liaise with each other to facilitate tax administration at all levels.

“We request Nananom to provide space for temporary secretariats during programmes and special exercises,” he said, and requested that the agencies have access to information that would assist in identifying potential local tax payers.

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