The northern regional director of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Mr. Rowland Miah, has bemoaned the escalating rate at which some citizens in the area connive with multinational companies to evade their tax obligations.
According to him, the tax evaders use various schemes like thin capitalization, income splitting, transfer pricing, tax shelters, changing residence among others to avoid paying the tax needed for nation building.
�Only 20% of business organizations in the area pay their taxes regularly,� he indicated.
He attributed the deficiency to lack of personnel needed to maximize internal revenue generation in the area.
�The entire region has only 14 officers monitoring and supervising the operations of 19 districts,� he disclosed.
The northern regional IRS boss was speaking at a public sensitization forum organized at the City campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) under the theme, �Tax non-compliance in Ghana, a Bigger Cost Than official theft and Bribery.�
He identified poor salaries, low motivation and weak positive intra linkages between the revenue agencies as factors that have contributed to the low revenue generation in the region.
He called for adequate personnel and logistical support to enable his office hit the target of mobilizing enough revenue to sustain the nation�s economy.
He also impressed upon government agencies to effectively collaborate with the GCnet to enable them monitor businessmen who evade their tax obligations.
A lecturer at the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics of the University for Development Studies (UDS), Dr. Michael Ayamga, challenged products of the university to serve as agents of change in their localities.
He asked government and donor agencies to adequately resource the UDS to position itself as a world class centre of excellence which is poised to train the human resource needed to boost the nation�s growth.
The forum was sponsored by Action-Aid Ghana in collaboration with the Internal Revenue Service.
Source: Citifmonline.com
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