Deal with businesses registered with VAT- VRCC advises

The Volta Regional Co-ordinating Council (VRCC) has reminded District Assemblies, Departments and Agencies in the region to do business with only business organisations registered with the Value Added Tax (VAT) Secretariat.

A letter dated April 23, this year, and signed by Mr Steve Selormey, the Regional Co-ordinating Director (RCD), the Council regretted that MDAs have disregarded 'with impunity", an earlier directive by the Regional Minister last year.

The reminder accordingly directed all government organisations concerned to ensure that the "VAT law as it applies to provision of services and supplies is respected".

The letter noted that non-compliance of the directive undermined government's efforts to generate sufficient revenue for developments.

Attached to the reminder, were a copy of the first directive and a VAT Service notice in the media on the same subject.

The Volta Region VAT Secretariat last year collected only 900 million cedis out of its target of 1.2 billion cedis.

Mr Emmanuel Akpaku, Head of the Volta Regional Secretariat told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Ho, that in March this year, there was short collection due to "the normally dull business activity in the region and government agencies' persistent refusal to deal with business organisations registered with the VAT.