MICRO BUSINESSES URGED TO PAY TAX (SPREAD)

Story: A. Kofoya-Tetteh, Koforidua

THE New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive, Nana Adjei Boateng, has stated that although the assembly is not a profit-making organisation, it must operate in such a way that it would generate income to improve the provision of social amenities for the people.
He has therefore called on proprietors of Micro and Small Scale Enterprises (MSSEs) in the municipality to honour their tax obligations to the assembly to enable it to achieve that goal.
Nana Adjei Boateng made the remarks at a roundtable discussion between the media and MSSEs in Koforidua.
The conference, which was to empower the media to strengthen business advocacy in the municipality, was organised by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) with funding from the BUSAC Fund and facilitated by KAB Governance Consult.
It was attended by media practitioners and a cross-section of operators of MSSEs in the municipality
According to Nana Adjei Boateng, the assembly had a lot to do in terms of providing social amenities and keeping a clean environment devoid of diseases and the only way to accomplish such a goal was for the people, especially operators of MSSSEs to honour their tax obligations to the assembly.
“We have to clear refuse daily at a huge cost and at the same time provide social amenities to the people and we can only do that if people living in the municipality, especially traders and owners of micro businesses, honour their tax obligations to us,” Nana Adjei Boateng stated.
On allegations that the assembly imposed high and unrealistic tax on businesses in the area, he said taxpayers were normally consulted before taxes were implemented.
Nana Adjei Boateng, however, asked operators of MSSEs to assist the assembly to identify their counterparts operating at home to bring them into the tax net, adding that it would make it possible for the assembly to reduce the tax burden on others.
With regard to assisting operators of MSSEs in the municipality with funds to operate their businesses, he said the assembly took that initiative sometime ago by making available poverty alleviation funds, but expressed regret that only a few beneficiaries paid back their advances, making it unwise to continue with such an initiative.
He, however, gave the assurance that people in the area would be considered in any future disbursement of such a facility.
The BUSAC Fund Manager, Dr Dale Rachmer, said his outfit, which was set up in 2004 with the view of promoting the private sector, would continue in that direction.
That, he stated, would enable the sector to pay tax to the government to carry out its development programmes.
The Presiding Member of the New Juaben Municipal Assembly, Odeefo Boadi Asiedu, called on all stakeholders to help Koforidua to regain its position as the leading commercial centre in the region while the General Secretary of the GJA, Mr Bright Blewu, appealed to journalists in the region to be actively involved in the promotion of small-scale businesses.
Representatives of the SMMEs expressed their dissatisfaction about what they called a high rate of taxation in the municipality, which, according to them, was too high, and appealed to the assembly for reduction.
In a welcoming address, the President of the GJA, Mr Ransford Tetteh, said the Koforidua dialogue and several others that would be organised would, among other things, develop the capacity of a core team of journalists in business advocacy and create a multimedia platform to discuss the concerns of businesses.
He said the GJA considered its engagements in galvanising the media into focusing attention on business concerns and development to be a noble one capable of making a real difference in business culture in Ghana.
He said the project — which would help journalists with a much deeper understanding and monitoring ability of the Ghanaian business sector to enable them to provide a reliable, educative, informed analysis on economic, financial and business issues and improve access of Ghanaians to information on national and international economic trends — was also in line with its efforts at promoting specialisation in journalism and strengthening coverage in all important sectors other than politics.
Such interaction and engagements, Mr Tetteh said, would enable media practitioners to learn at first-hand the prospects and challenges of the micro and small-scale sector and help to draw the attention of policy makers to them.
He expressed the GJA’s gratitude to the BUSAC Fund and KAB Consult for their support for the project.