Large Taxpayer Unit Collects More Revenue

The Large Taxpayer Unit (LTU) under the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB) collected approximately ¢1.6 trillion in the first quarter of this year as against almost the ¢1.3 trillion it collected during the same period last year.

This year's performance represents an increase of about ¢298 billion or about six per cent over that of last year.

The unit collected ¢1,589,675,352,718 beyond its target of ¢1,561,059,094,073 for the first quarter of this year, indicating a positive variance of ¢28,616,258,645 or an increase of 1.83 per cent over the target.

In the first quarter of last year, the unit fell short of its target by collecting ¢1,291,984,957,495 out of the ¢1,348,028,782,902 set for it for the period. That represented a shortfall of ¢56,043,825,407 or 4.16 per cent.

The excess in target for the first quarter of this year is considered very significant, because it comes at a time many corporate entities are reeling heavily in terms of productivity under the prevailing energy crisis.

The LTU, which was established in April 2004, is a one-stop-centre that takes care of all tax matters (except customs duty payments) of 366 corporate entities considered to be large taxpayers.

It offers convenience, satisfaction and quality service delivery among other privileges to the 366 companies, with the view to encouraging them to keep faith with their tax obligations.

Last Monday marked the deadline for the filing of tax returns and the management of the LTU took advantage of the occasion to interact with the media and share its success story.

The Director of the LTU, Mrs Comfort Boohene-Osafo, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, attributed the success of the unit in exceeding its target for the first quarter to effective strategies adopted by her administration.

She mentioned some of the strategies as sensitising corporate institutions to paying their taxes promptly and undertaking auditing of the operations of companies.

She was hopeful that the unit would meet its annual target of ¢7,177,977,453,219 if things continued to be favourable.

She said out of the 366 blue-chip companies constituting the large taxpayers, 48 were not operational, while others were underperforming.

There was, therefore, the need to review the membership to reflect their status as large taxpayers.

The director expressed concern about the lack of a generator at the office to facilitate work, especially during periods of power outage.

According to her, all the offices were computerised and anytime power went off, work was brought to a standstill, thus affecting revenue collection.

Mr Emmanuel Boakye-Yiadom, Manager, Taxpayer Services of the LTU, said it was the commitment of the unit to interact with the corporate institutions individually and appreciate their problems so as to enhance revenue mobilisation.

“It's working like magic”, Mr Boakye-Yiadom said, adding that, “We're not resting on our oars. We're doing the best that we can to get more people in the tax net.”

Story by Kofi Yeboah