Jirapa Assembly members asked to improve tax collection

Jirapa, July 29, GNA - Mr Bernard K. Puozuing, Jirapa District Chief Executive, has tasked Assembly and Unit Committee members to work assiduously to improve the collection of rates and taxes to enable the Assembly to increase its internally generated revenue. He said internally generated fund was the life blood of every district assembly and called for collective efforts to mobilize revenue from all sources to enable the Jirapa assembly to undertake more development projects.

Mr Puozuing, who was addressing members of the assembly at its second ordinary sitting in Jirapa on Thursday, said the marginal 7,437.00 Ghana cedis collected out of projected revenue of 129,311.46 Ghana Cedis was not good news.

He said: 93Available revenue from January to June indicates that we h= ave generated net revenue of 7,437.00 Ghana Cedis and we need to react now." Mr. Puozuing cautioned the assembly to prevent frequent audit queries for using Common Fund for recurrent expenditure.

He appealed to the people to pay their taxes promptly and regularly to enable the assembly to generate more revenue for development. Mr Puozuing said that the assembly had through the District Developmen= t Fund, the District Wide Assistance Programme, Ghana Education Trust Fund an= d the assembly's share of the District Assembly Common Fund expended 797,428.09 Ghana Cedis on development projects throughout the district. The projects included the rehabilitation of classroom blocks and ancillary facilities, construction classroom blocks with ancillary facilities and the building of Day Care centres. Mr Puozuing said the assembly had also released 3,000.00 Ghana Cedis t= o support this year's District Science, Technology and Mathematics Innovati= on Fair, which seeks to offer competing students and schools the opportunity t= o showcase their talents.

He said that the assembly had spent 209,676.04 Ghana Cedis on the construction and maintenance of health facilities to help improve health in the area. Mr Puozuing said 142,437.03 Ghana cedis had been spent on the construction and maintenance of three Community Health and Planning Service compounds.