Assemblies urged to gazette fee-fixing resolutions

Mr. Eric Akobeng, budget analyst for the Gomoa West District Assembly, has urged all assemblies in the country to gazette fee-fixing resolutions to facilitate revenue collection to generate more funds for development.
He expressed dissatisfaction that some assemblies were unable to meet revenue targets because of their inability to gazette annual rate notices and fee-fixing resolutions to give them legal backing to enforce revenue collection.

Mr Akobeng was facilitating a three-day capacity building workshop for revenue collectors from Gomoa East and West Districts at Apam in the Central Region, on Friday.

He said some assemblies were “toothless bulls which could only bark but could not bite” as they had no legal right to prosecute tax defaulters.

Mr Akobeng appealed to the revenue collectors to provide the assemblies with up-to-date information on tax payers in their areas to enable the assemblies to compile reliable data to enhance annual revenue projections.

Mr Samuel Mbreye Quartey, Gomoa West District Local Government Inspector, called for regular swapping of positions of revenue collectors to prevent them from becoming too familiar with the people, a situation that according to him could breed malpractices.

He reminded revenue collectors that fees were usually fixed for one year duration, from 1st January to 31st December
and they had no right to reduce fees for people who would pay their tax late, without prior approval of the assemblies.

Mr John Kobing-Dadzie, Gomoa West District Finance Officer, said every revenue item had a code number and advised revenue collectors to avoid wrong coding when preparing their returns.

He said such mistakes prevented some assemblies from getting correct information on the performance of the various revenue items.

Mr Kobing-Dadzie expressed worry that some revenue collectors faced difficulties in converting cash from the old currency to the new currency even though a workshop had been organized to educate them on the conversion.

Mr Mohammed Shiraz Musah, Gomoa West District Deputy Co-ordinating Director, called on the revenue collectors to assist in checking tax invasion to enable the assemblies to meet revenue targets.