Government exceeds first quarter tax revenue

The Large Tax Payers Unit (LTU) has exceeded its revenue collection target by about ¢28.6 billion for the first quarter of 2007.

The Unit, established about five years ago to collect taxes from 366 blue-chip companies collected ¢1.589 trillion as against a target of ¢1.561 trillion for the period.

The trend in revenue collection ahs been described as encouraging, and when sustained can help government meet the ¢37.5 trillion target expected to be generated internally this year.

The Manager in charge of Taxpayer Services of LTU, Mr. Emanuel Boakye–Yiadom, told B&FT in an interview that the Unit will meet its annual target of ¢7.2 trillion through result based strategies that include aggressive tax collection, enhanced educational campaigns and facilitated auditing procedures.

The size of the county's economy is pegged at ¢112 trillion, which is equivalent to US$12.4 billion.

Government has since the beginning of the year embarked on a number of policy initiatives to accelerate economic growth through tax cuts.

For instance the national reconstruction levy has been abolished since January this year, with income taxes slashed to encourage tax compliance and increase disposable incomes.

Import duty rate has been reduced form 10 per cent to 5 per cent to make importers of raw materials competitive with their counterparts in other countries.