The Commissioner-General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Mr Kofi Nti has called on the media to help in the dissemination of tax information, the need for compliance and benefits of tax payment to Ghanaians.
He said there was the need for deliberate and sustained efforts on the part of the media to set the agenda on taxation, thereby creating the required awareness that would complement the authority’s interventions and ultimately bring about attitudinal change with regards to tax issues.
Mr Nti made the call at a workshop organised by the GRA for members of the Private Newspapers Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) in Koforidua in the Eastern Region last weekend.
The two-day workshop was held on the theme bringing the informal sector into the tax net, the role of the media.
Efforts by GRA
Mr Nti said the GRA had and continued to come up with various strategies which included simplifying processes and procedures, intensified education and improved service delivery, full enforcement of Tax Identification Number (TIN), deployment of the Integrated tax application and preparation system.
‘While the GRA recognises the fact that more work is required to be done to improve compliance, it also incumbent on all income-earning persons to contribute their quota to ration building. That is why the authority believes that collaborators such as PRINPAG will be of great benefit to the national kitty,” he added.
He challenged PRINPAG as a body, individual members. whether as corporate entities or sole proprietors, to be alive to their tax responsibilities.
“I therefore, expect you to rush to the main tax and satellite offices to settle your outstanding and current liabilities to the full and thereby contribute your quota to national development,” he said.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Eric Kwakye Daffuor, for his part, expressed the hope that the GRA would continue to strengthen the simplification of tax filing procedures, improve tax administration and constantly update its master list of informal sector businesses.
Positive engagement
He commended the GRA for engaging the media in its bid to achieve its revenue targets and said the coming on board of the media was, therefore, significant to help expand the tax net.
The President of PRINPAG, Mr Andrew Edwin Arthur said in spite of Ghana having one of the fastest-growing oil and gas sectors with emerging issues, in agriculture, banking, employment and other areas, media training Institutions were yet to incorporate specialisation into their curricula to enable student journalists to specialise.
He urged media practitioners in Ghana to take advantage of those opportunities to upgrade their knowledge in order to remain relevant in their chosen profession.
He thanked the GRA for sponsoring the workshop, which, according to him was timely.
The President of the Ghana Journalists Association, Mr Roland Affail Monney, urged journalists to be professional on financial issues instead of viewing it with political lenses.