Takoradi, May 15, GNA- Mr. Emmanuel Doku, Commissioner of Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), on Tuesday called on personnel of the service to re-double their efforts to enable the service to achieve its revenue target for the year. He made the call at a meeting with the staff of the service at Takoradi.

Mr. Doku said the service was unable to achieve its revenue target last year and urged the them to improve revenue collection this year. He said despite the shortfall in last year's target, revenue collected exceeded the previous year by 17 per cent. Mr. Doku hoped the personnel were putting in their best to assist the "Sector Commander and his management to achieve the targets for the Takoradi Collection".

He said, "There is a 3 per cent shortfall in revenue now, so it is essential that we all put in extra effort to bridge the gap". Mr. Doku said about 443 members of staff, including Principal Collectors have been transferred to energise the service. He said the transfers did not affect Chief Collectors because they have to remain at post to supervise revenue collection for the moment. Mr. Doku said the CEPS Academy is to be modernized and contract has been awarded for the construction of a modern administrative block at the academy.

He said a block at the academy would also be renovated and refurbished and turned into a computer room to train the staff.

Mr. Anthony Sewor, Sector Commander, Takoradi, said revenue mobilisation for Takoradi Collection has not been easy for the past three years, but this has changed in recent times.

He said as at May 14 this year, the Takoradi Collection had collected 385 billion cedis. Mr. Sewor said the Takoradi Collection would mount an operation against uncustomed vehicles from June 1 this year. 15 May 07