GRi Business,
Economics & Finance 20 – 06 - 2003
Commercial drivers
to pay taxes on earnings
Government owes GETFund 207 billion cedis
A survey conducted by the Pricewaterhouse Coopers mentioned bribery and corruption as
the biggest problem in
This was made known on Thursday
when J. H. Mensah, Senior Minister, launched the
report of the survey, which began in February this year.
The 61 organisations that
participated in the survey were selected at random in each sector of the economy
where companies' chief executives, chief finance officers and those responsible
for detecting fraud were interviewed.
The Senior Minister said
economic crime had become endemic in the country and all efforts must be made
to curb it because it could be likened to a tax which all had to pay.
He said the sad aspect of the
problem was that many Ghanaians children were being taught to believe that
thieving had become a normal thing with some accepting it as part of our
culture.
The Minister said the perception
must be corrected that a high proportion of the revenues, which citizens were
compelled by law to pay to government as taxes in return for promised social
and economic services, ended up in private pockets of corrupt officials.
He said, "
Mensah said government's Zero
Tolerance of Corruption, which set the cardinal principle for conduct of
official business was not and would not be a phraseology
of a political party but would strive to live to its tenets for the good of
all.
He said the problem was a whole
culture of doing things, which explained why government was taking measures to
strengthen the institutional capacities and instituting codes of conduct for
all government officials as well as set up an office of accountability.
Besides, Mensah
said, government had instituted a forensic audit into a number of state
institutions as part of the measures to clear the mess in the system. On the
law on "Causing Financial Loss to the State", he said: "Let us
debate, but never forget the supreme principle that the holders of the supreme
duty will always protect the interest of the state and not their own individual
interests."
Given other details of the
report, Felix Addo, a Partner of Pricewaterhouse
Coopers, said insiders perpetrated 67 per cent of all economic crimes reported.
This indicated that the greatest risk to companies was from their own
employees, managers and those in fiduciary positions rather than from outside.
He said the most common forms of
economic crimes at the corporate level were said to be asset misappropriation,
which had 44 per cent and financial misrepresentation (23 per cent), in all
reported incidences.
Addo said "high tech"
crimes such as money laundering and cyber crime were the least common crimes
committed in the country recording two and three per cent respectively.
He said two-thirds of
organisations estimated that none of the amount lost through economic crime was
recoverable, although almost all respondents required that economic crimes
uncovered must be reported to an internal body.
Agyeman Manu, Deputy Minister of
Finance and Economic Planning, mentioned good governance, proper systems and
procedures, tolerance level and leadership as four key areas that must be
looked at to make economic crime unattractive.
He challenged the private sector
to ensure that they took a critical look at their own corporate governance
environments saying boards of directors, audit committees, executive committees
and internal auditors all had responsibility to check corruption.
Manu said: "Economic crime
at the level that the survey portrayed would drive away any potential investor,
depriving every one of us in this country of the opportunities we are seeking
for ourselves."
GRi…/
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Commercial
drivers to pay taxes on earnings
Ho (Volta Region)
Joseph Kwabena
Oppong, Chief Inspector of Taxes (CHIT) of the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) dropped this hint at the launching of the New
Commercial Vehicles Income Tax Sticker System at Ho on Thursday.
Oppong, who was answering questions,
said there was every justification to make the drivers pay tax on their
earnings because the vehicle income tax system related to incomes earned by
owners of commercial vehicles in respect of their vehicles, which excludes
their drivers.
He said public sector drivers
had had to question the exclusion of their counterparts in the private sector
from paying tax on their incomes even though they were perceived to be earning
more from their operations.
Oppong said the new lower vehicle
income tax levels were aimed at making payment easier for the vehicle owners
and an incentive to many vehicle owners who hitherto were not paying.
He explained that if the IRS
went by studies it did on the various routes and incomes earned by the
commercial vehicle owners, they would have to pay higher than they were paying
previously.
For example the old quarterly
tax for taxis and cars on hire and tro-tros up to 19
seats was 60,000 cedis, but under the new sticker
system, which would come into effect from July 1, this year, they would be
required to pay 48,000 cedis every quarter. All other
categories of commercial vehicles would pay lower than they were paying now
according to figures released by the IRS at the launch.
Oppong explained that commercial
vehicle owners would nevertheless have to file final returns on their yearly
incomes to the IRS as the new vehicle income tax Sticker System would only be a
deposit.
Oppong advised commercial drivers to
get their vehicle owners to patronise the sticker system in order to avoid
being prosecuted together with other vehicle-owners who would refuse to buy the
stickers.
He said by the new law on the
vehicle sticker system, only the police and not the
Oppong said the GPRTU guards could,
however, limit their operations to the lorry parks to ensure that every vehicle
possessed the stickers to ensure that the GPRTU earned its commission on the
sale of the stickers.
He said unlike formerly the
transport bodies would have to pre-pay for the stickers, which they would then sell
to their members for a commission of two-and-a half percent.
George Kofi
Boateng, Special Assistant to the Volta Regional
Minister Kwasi Owusu-Yeboa
was optimistic that the sticker system would prove to be an efficient system
for maximising tax revenue from the commercial vehicle sector.
He said this was because the
lower levels agreed on were the result of consultations between the IRS and the
Ghana Private Road Co-ordinating Council. Boateng
suggested to the IRS and the GPRTCC to mount intensive public education for
vehicle owners and drivers on the new system.
He called for an increase in the
commission of two-and-a-half percent to encourage the various Transport
Associations to maximise their sales.
GRi…/
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Government
owes GETFund 207 billion cedis
He said the arrears, which
started mounting in the very first year of the Fund, had significantly stalled
the development of infrastructure in educational institutions throughout the
country.
Banahene said this at the maiden Weekly
Press Briefing instituted by the Ministry of Information in
This week's briefing featured
issues pertaining to the GETFund, National
Identification Card and the
He explained that the Fund was
now doing well and currently undertaking a number of projects across the
country. Banahene said a significant number of
development projects by the Fund were underway at all the five Universities, 10
Polytechnics and other educational institutions scattered across the country.
"This was after some funds
were made available sometime in 2001 and last year and we can now say that work
is going on smoothly to enhance teaching and learning in
Banahene said annual revenue accruing to
the Fund depended largely on VAT proceeds to government coffers. Banahene, however, complained about the difficulty in
maintaining staff of the Fund.
"We have severe difficulty in
getting the right calibre of staff and those we attract do not stay for long
since we have to stick to civil service payment terms. This usually is not
attractive enough and they leave after a short while."
He said they now have to employ
staff on contract basis. Dr Gheysika Agambilla, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Ports,
Harbours and Railways, commenting on the matters raised on the award of a
contract by GPHA, said it was clear that some details of the contract
information were not made to the local evaluating team.
"They got it later and
worked on it though," he said of the 60 million dollars contract. He said
this could explain the discrepancies in the different figures quoted as the
contract figure by Interbeton, the company that won
the bid to undertake developments at the
He explained that the law
establishing the GPHA gave it the mandate to contract external loans
independent of government. "Therefore, it does not necessarily need the
approval of Parliament to contract for loans," Dr Agamibilla
said.
He admitted that only Parliament
could grant exemptions adding that was why GPHA wrote to the Ministry of
Finance and Parliament on the matter.
The Ghanaian Chronicle,
originator of the story, was not satisfied saying it did not understand why a
contract that had been signed already was yet to have a specified sum.
GRi…/
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