Unit to be set for large taxpayers
Ghana has a secured government for
investment
He cited tax audits as a common function of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), the VAT Service and the IRS, and noted that in the event of auditing, a particular taxpayer by all the three revenue agencies in the same year, planning of audits were not co-ordinated.
Speaking at an Executive Business Seminar in
The Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), organised the seminar for management personnel in Commerce, Trade and Industry to discuss "the implications of tax administration in 2003 to business". It was also attended by high profile representatives from the IRS, the CEPS and the VAT Service.
Adom reminded tax administrators that hosting auditors could be time consuming, expensive and also disruptive of the daily smooth running of activities of the taxpayer. He said input tax in the VAT Law was rather built into the tax structure of
exempt goods, and pointed out that that added up to the cost of basic essentials and pushed up the cost of basic materials.
"This development is negative, and therefore militates against the growth and profitability of [this] essential sector of the economy." Adom referred to Section 76 of the Internal Revenue Act, Act 592, which deals with provisional assessments, and noted that the difference between the year of assessment of the revenue agencies and from company to company was a contradiction of the position of the law.
The law stipulates that the Commissioner after the commencement of each basis period of a person who pays tax by installments, proceed to make a provisional assessment computed according to the Commissioner's best judgement. Adom advised companies to pay their taxes promptly to avoid interests and penalties on default, which eventually tended to increase the out-of-pocket cost of taxes.
Honouring their tax obligations would also exempt them from suffering withholding tax on goods and services and prevent capital lock-up, and reduce time spent on acquiring clearance certificates for business transactions.
He said prompt tax payment would also enable a company to be recommended for self-assessment and get the opportunity to review tax payments during the year in line of performance. Brigadier Richardson Baiden, Commissioner, CEPS, said the Customs Service was charged to collect six trillion cedis this year.
Expected revenue from import trade to the amount in the budget is 4.22 trillion cedis, and the remaining 1.78 trillion is expected from the petroleum sector. Baiden said Government realised that internally generated revenue was the most reliable source for financing national development and the CEPS has therefore adopted a number of measures to enhance the performance of its staff in collecting revenue.
CEPS is automating its operations at the ports and organising programmes for its officers to instill greater discipline in its officers to raise their efficiency. Nana Osei Twumasi, Deputy Commissioner, Research, Planning and Monitoring, IRS, said the 2003 budget has extended the submission of returns of international companies to the British Pound Sterling, the US Dollar and the Euro.
The National Reconstruction Levy Act of 2001, Act 597 has been renewed for the next three years. The Act requires banks to pay 10 percent, insurance companies 3 to 7.5 per cent and other companies 2.5 per cent of their net profit before tax to government.
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Unit to be set for large taxpayers
He said the programme was essentially for the payment of domestic taxes and administered by the Internal Revenue Service and the Value Added Tax Service (VATS). Brigadier Baiden was addressing a Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (GCCI) Executive Business Seminar that discussed
"the implications of tax administration in 2003 to business" held in
Management personnel from banks, trade, commerce and manufacturing industries attended the seminar. He said the payment of import taxes was not to be directly brought under the unit. The Customs Commissioner said that a programme was being designed through which a selected number of few large importers who have exhibited a high level of compliance to Customs laws would be provided 'fast track' treatment through the Customs.
"This is the Gold Card programme and it is to give recognition those who have over the years shown the way that success comes better through compliance and have made very significant contribution to the consolidated fund", Brig. Baiden said.
Brig. Baiden said various fraudulent practices, including fake invoices, collusion with overseas suppliers, some CEPS officials and inspection companies constituted prosecutable crimes.
"The excess profit we illegally make by cutting corners
gets siphoned away in paying for additional taxes that are imposed to make up
for lost revenue to government", he added. Ken Bentsi-Enchill,
VAT official said
It called specifically for the abolition of discriminatory border taxes for the adoption of a consumer tax called Value Added Tax by the year 1999. He said the declared objectives indicated clearly that VAT would remain the vehicle for ensuring the non-importation and non-exportation of Domestic Direct Taxes and smooth inter-regional trade.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 08 May 2003 - The Ghana Stock Exchange All-Share Index maintained its steady rise on Wednesday, going up by 5.4 points in moderate trading that saw six price changes. The index, the main market gauge, ended trading at 1,778.54 points with 127,800 shares changing hands, up from 99,900 on Monday.
The Trust Bank of the Gambia (TBL) led the way with a ¢190 gain at 6,200 cedis followed by SSB Bank, which was 100 cedis higher at ¢6,950. Fan Milk Limited was ¢5 richer at ¢2,211, Mechanical Lloyd rose by ¢2 at ¢314 and Unilever and British American Tobacco each gained ¢1 at ¢6,601 and ¢1,601.
Change for the year ended up at 27.08 per cent. Market capitalisation closed slightly higher at ¢7,832.98bn from 7,819.84bn.
The following are the last prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 430
AGC 28,500
ALW 4,000
BAT 1,501 +1
CFAO 72
CPC 630
EIC 5,005
FML 2,211 +5
GBL 531
GCB 5,400
GGL 1,600
HFC 1,300
MGL 258
MLC 314 +2
MOGL 19,800
PAF 750
PBC 390
PZ 2,040
SCB 34,001
SPPC 390
SSB 6,950 +100
SWL 285
TBL 5,200 +190
UNIL 6,601 +1
CMLT 460
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Domaine Les Pailles
(
President Kufuor was speaking at a luncheon organised by the Joint Economic Council of Muaritius in his honour on the second day of his four-day state visit to the country at Domaine Les Pailles. The Council is made up of the nine main institutions in the private sector and forms the apex body of the sector.
He said the future for socio-economic development in any
country, required people with initiative and creativity. "We need to
evolve the agencies and mechanisms whereby government and the private sector
could interact in a functional manner for development", he said. President
Kufuor said government believed in co-operate
relations with labour and the employer so that the benefit of their activities
would accrue to the entire population, noting that this had been the basis for
the success of
He said
Gilbert ESpitalier Noel, Chairman of the Council, said the basis for the strong and continuous relations between the sector and the government was that they almost always agreed on issues but sometimes there were disagreements. He said their disagreement were expressed in dialogue and there had been regular consultations between the government and some specific sectors.
Noel said their government sustained and restructured
institutions and sectors that were not performing well and was now looking up
to the ICT area for growth and creation of employment. He said
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