VAT, IRS urged to intensify tax education

Sewum(W/R), Nov.4, GNA - Mr. Kobby Glover, Second-in-Command of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) checkpoint at Sewum near Enchi has called on the managements of the Value Added Tax (VAT), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other revenue agencies to collaborate their efforts to intensify tax education in the country.

He said the tax agencies must sensitise traders and corporate business entrepreneurs on the need to fulfill their tax obligation because most traders were ignorant on the immense benefits of taxes in development and did not see the need to pay tax.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency at Sewum on Thursday, Mr. Glover said "It is because of the lack of knowledge on the need for them to pay taxes that many traders engage in smuggling by using unapproved routes." He said the intensification of tax education, would help check tax evasion particularly through smuggling that continued to cause "great revenue loss to the country."

Mr. Glover appealed to residents in communities along the borders to cooperate with security agencies to check smuggling but not condone and connive with smugglers and other criminals.

He explained that CEPS had the right to erect snap barriers anywhere in the country to check smuggling and other criminal activities. Mr. Glover appealed to the Ghana Highway Authority to construct a permanent bridge to replace the one that span River Boin that had become a death trap.

He called on the management of the Electricity Company of Ghana to extend electricity to Sewum to improve on the social and economic activities of the people.