Tema, July 24, GNA - The Tema Metropolitan Office of the Value
Added Tax (VAT) Service, on Thursday sensitized shop owners in Tema on
its operations and urged traders to register with the service. Mr Akwasi Amofa, Principal Revenue Officer of VAT at Tema said
the charging and payment of VAT generate more revenue for the country which
facilitates development. Mr Amofa said revenue from the tax was used to support the
implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the Ghana
Education Trust Fund (GETFund). He stated that as a public and civic responsibility, traders whose
annual turnover exceeded GH¢5,000 must register and charge VAT while
customers must also demand their VAT invoices. The Principal Revenue Officer added that in order to make it easy
for traders to calculate the VAT returns, wholesalers were to charge 15 percent
while retailers charged three percent of the tax on goods and services. He further advised the shop owners to keep records of their
imports; purchases and sales to enable them provide correct information on the
VAT returns forms. The return forms, he said, must be presented to the nearest VAT
office at the end of every month, cautioning that failure to do so after an
additional one month grace period attracted GH¢100 penalty. Mr Amofa gave the assurance that the metropolitan office was
considering opening sub offices in some communities including Ashaiman to
ease the stress that traders from afar go through. Mr Charles Obeng Bawuah, Chairman of the Tema Shop owners
Association appealed to the government to reduce the numerous tax obligations
by shop owners, which according to him affected the prices of their goods. Mr Bawuah noted that due to the high taxation they pay, shop
owners had no option than to increase the prices of goods leading to low sales
as consumers prefer buying from the hawkers who have lower or no tax
obligations. He also appealed to financial institutions to reduce their interest rate
to enable traders borrow and expand their business to help the country to
generate more revenue.
