VAT records good
performance, but could have done better – Asamoah
Brick and Tile
factory to be re-activated
VAT records good
performance, but could have done better – Asamoah
Accra (Greater Accra) 15 January
2001
Value Added Tax (VAT) last year
exceeded its target of 1,257 billion cedis by three billion cedis, Mr Ezekiel
Asamoah, Commissioner of VAT Service, said on Friday.
The service would have exceeded
the target by a higher margin but for the late start of the implementation of
the additional 2.5 per cent increase in the tax for the Education Trust Fund,
Mr Asamaoh said in an interview with the GNA.
Total VAT collected for 1999 was
729.1 billion, which was 13.2 per cent more than the projected 700 billion
cedis. About 260 billion cedis was collected from the manufacturing industry,
traders and other sources and 469.1 billion cedis from imported items.
Mr Asamoah explained that last
year, the VAT Service set the target thinking that the 2.5 per cent increase in
VAT would come into force at the beginning of the second quarter of the year.
Implementation of the 2.5 per cent
VAT took off on June 1, 2000.
As a result, monthly returns
collected for the first half-year were less than the 600 billion cedis it had
anticipated.
Mr Asamoah said from January to
May 2000, the service collected an average of 50.9 billion cedis a month from
import VAT, that is, duties on imported goods.
The amount increased to an average
of 80 billion cedis and went close to 100 billion cedis later in the year.
Monthly returns from domestic
sources as recorded by Local VAT Offices (LVOs) yielded 30 billion cedis a
month at the beginning of the year and increased to 40 billion cedis a month
for the rest of the year.
The service pegged the total
average monthly collection at slightly above 100 billion cedis.
Mr Asamoah said the filing rate of
between 75 and 85 per cent recorded last year was good. Filing rate for 1999
was between 75 per cent to 86 per cent.
On factors militating against the
rapid consolidation of the tax , the Commissioner said most business operators are still outside
the net because of ignorance or refusal to fulfil their responsibility to the
state.
"The vetting process adopted
to identify these operators also failed to make the desired impact," he
said, adding, "lack of a good street numbering system made it difficult
for the service to locate most businesses."
He said this drained the service
as it had to use more people to drive around to locate businesses.
It is in view of this, Mr Asamoah
said, that the service carried out a consolidation exercise to ensure that the
tax net covered those who were not paying.
Mr Asamoah said last year, the VAT
service looked critically at the services sector to ensure that service
providers, most of who assume that they were exempt from VAT, paid up.
"The focus was on
communication and business centres and the numerous Internet cafes springing up
in the cities."
Attempts were also made to tighten
the list of items that were exempted from VAT to improve on collection, he
said, but did not elaborate.
Currently, essential drugs and
ingredients for the manufacture of pharmaceutical products and education
materials are exempt.
The Commissioner said the Service
instituted measures to ensure that all private lotto operators were brought
into the tax net.
Mr Asamoah said although
prosecution of offenders and penalties had deterred delinquents, there is still
the need for education to enable the public to be alive to their responsibilities.
GRi…/
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Asutsuare (Eastern Region) 15
January 2001
A training programme for
agricultural school graduates in the cultivation of protea, a special flowers
with a high market value for export to the European market, is underway at
Asutsuare.
The one and a half-year programme,
which started with sixteen graduates, falls under the Youth in Agriculture
project of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
It is being jointly undertaken by
the Tema Municipal Office of the Department of Food and Agriculture and Pawpaw
Farms and Marketing Limited, owned by Mr Solomon Lando, an Israeli farmer, to
help the trainees to acquire scientific skills in flower cultivation.
Mr. Julius Ametepe, Tema Municipal
Director of Agriculture said Plastro Irrigation and Infrastructure Systems, an
Israeli company, has donated drip-irrigation equipment valued at 25,000 US
dollars to support the programme.
He said the trainees, who have
acquired a 10-hectare land at Tema for the project, will be assisted to set up
a nursery and link it with a computerised system, which will transfer water
automatically to ensure maximum conservation.
Mr. Lando, who has personally
donated fertilisers and other inputs said protea has been cultivated in Kenya,
Tanzania and South Africa and can be successfully grown in Ghana.
Protea matures within a year.
Pawpaw Farms has tried it on its nursery at Tema and transferred the seedlings
to the farm at Asutsuare, where they are doing well.
Mr. Lando said in Israel, a
hectare of protea fetches about 50,000 US dollars, when well managed.
Mr. Lando said the company has
began the exportation of passion fruits which it cultivated at the Kpong
Irrigation project site near Asutsuare, last year.
He said the passion project is a
150,000-dollar investment, which could yield about 20 tonnes per hectare a
year.
The company introduced the fruit
from Israel and has so far cropped nine hectares from cuttings.
Mr. Lando said the company uses
the drip irrigation system and noted that weather conditions in Ghana have
proved conducive for the crop.
He said last year, Pawpaw Farms
exported a small quantity to Germany and hopes to increase production this
year.
Passion takes six to seven months
to grow and fruits twice or three times a year.
Mr. Lando said the farm has also
started trial cultivation of pithaya, a fruit of the cactus family, which has a
big market in Europe.
GRi…/
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Brick and Tile
factory to be re-activated
Dormaa Ahenkro (Brong Ahafo) 15
January 2001
The Dormaa Traditional Council's
brick and tile factory at Dormaa Ahenkro is to be re-activated, to create
employment for the youth.
A five-member committee has, been
set up to study the causes of its collapse and make recommendations to revive
it.
Osagyefo Oseadeyee Agyeman Badu
II, Dormaahene, announced this at a meeting of the council at Dormaa Ahenkro on
Friday.
He expressed concern about
chieftaincy disputes in the area and called for solution.
Osagyefo Agyeman Badu emphasised
the importance of education in socio-economic development and appealed to the
people to contribute towards the Dormaaman Educational Endowment Fund.
GRi…/
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Accra (Greater Accra) 15 January 2001
The Ghana Association of Bankers, on Friday January 12, 2001, announced the following average inter bank exchange rates of the cedi equivalent to the dollar and derived rates for other major foreign currencies.
Currency Buying Selling
US Dollar 6,779.45 6,997.64
Pound Sterling 10,170.53 10,501.36
French Franc 987.65 1,018.79
Swiss Franc 4,208.44 4,342.10
Deutsche Mark 3,311.15 3,417.74
Canadian Dollar 4,537.58 4,681.42
Japanese Yen 57.38 59.21
Dutch Guilder 2,939.88 3,032.45
S/African Rand 862.80 889.15
Euro 6,476.40 6,684.08
CFA Franc 9.88 10.19
Naira 67.87 70.05
Ecowas/WAUA 8.965.81 ------------
GRi…/
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