IRS makes advances in tax collection in C/R

Agona Swedru, Nov. 13, GNA - The Agona, Gomoa and Awutu-Effutu-Senya District branches of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), have collected 5.8 billion cedis (5,842,874,877.39 cedis) as at September, out of 7,532,601,536 billion cedis targeted for this year.

Mr Manu Antwi, Deputy Agona District Head of the Service announced this at a heads of department meeting organized by the Agona District Assembly to welcome Mr G.B.L. Siilo, the new District Co-ordinating Director.

He said the branches exceeded their targets of 4 billion cedis last year and expressed the hope that by the end of the year, the IRS would be able to collect its target of more than 7 billion cedis.

Mr Antwi appealed to the district assemblies to collaborate with the IRS to educate the public on the need to pay their taxes to enable government undertake more development projects.

Mr Siilo urged the heads of department to work as a team to enable the assembly to improve its social responsibilities to the people. He said the work of the assembly should not be kept in darkness, adding that the public must know what the assembly was doing in terms of infrastructure and social development.

The DCD called for regular interactions among the heads so that they could know, learn and solve problems to enhance productivity. Mr Yakubu Fatau, Agona District Magistrate told the meeting that the court disposed of about 60 cases (both criminal and civil) every month in spite of limited resources.

He said about 30 cases were awaiting judgement, adding that, the absence of a law library in the district was impeding the work of the court as personnel had to travel to Accra to get access to the facility.