Tema (GAR), June 27, --The Tema District Council of Labour (TDCL) today appealed to the government to improve the living conditions of workers in tthe country. The council expressed concern about the recent increase in fuel prices, particularly, the price hike in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the nearly 200 per cent increase in electricity tariffs, hig In a resolution adopted at a meeting at Tema, the TDCL said "the load is now too heavy for us to carry" and expressed fears that the re-introduction of the value added tax (VAT) from January nex The TDCL regretted that parliament had allowed utility tariffs, particularly electricity, to be raised arbit The council called on the government to treat the issues raised with urgency otherwise the TDCL would advise itself since the 2,000 cedis minimum wage is nothing to write home about.

In another development, Mr Ebenezer Assam, a tax officer of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has called on workers to take advantage of the number of tax reliefs granted them to claim tax refu Addressing the TDCL on tax reliefs, he mentioned 300,000 cedis per annum for married men or women and 240,000 cedis a year per child for a maximum of three children for those who have children i Employees who are more than 60 years old are entitled to old age tax relief of 300.000 cedis a year while Mr Assam explained that these reliefs can be enjoyed only on conditions that employees file their income tax returns at the end of every year at the various district offices of the IRS. He called for a mechanism that would allow tax reliefs to be granted within the year of assessment.