The Tema Office of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has held Tax Clinics in Tema to educate the public on tax related issues and to assist tax payers to file their Personal Tax Returns.

As part of the commemoration of April as “Client Service Month” for GRA, the Authority is trying to improve on its customer services, as such, tax payers would be educated on how to file their tax returns online at the comfort of their offices instead of walking to the tax offices to file.

This was made known on Monday in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during the exercise at Community Eleven Shell Filling Station by the Manager of the Tema Medium Tax Payer Office, Assistant Commissioner Mrs. Eugenia Manful.

Mrs. Manful informed that this week was designated Good Governance week, and “we are collaborating with the Ministry of Finance to sensitize public on the need to pay their taxes.”

She said Tema had set up two Tax Clinics where the general public and tax payers could walk to and be educated as “we want to reach more tax payers, we want to rope in more people, and we want to get our tax paying population to understand the system.”

The Assistant Commissioner said the GRA campaign last year was about Tax Identification Number (TIN) registration with a lot of people walking to their offices to register which had made GRA to double the number of TIN registrations “and some have translated into new tax payers.”

She said, “The exercise is continuing, more people are beginning to understand, our systems are being simplified and so we hope to get results.”

Mrs. Manful therefore asked Tax Officers to do their best to improve their services to clients.

A Compliance Officer of the Tema Medium Tax Payers Office, Mrs. Akosua Twumasiwaa Frimpong-Danso, observed the need for her outfit to intensify their sensitization as that would help bring in more tax payers and taxes.

Mrs. Frimpong-Danso said persons of the informal sector were reluctant in paying taxes to government because they did not see the need to.

She informed that tax paying was a civic responsibility which demanded every citizen to honor their taxes obligations to the state, and therefore people who felt they did not see the need to pay taxes because they still had challenges with developmental issues in their communities should change their minds.

The Tax and Good Governance week, which is on the theme, “Pay your tax returns, pay your taxes, move Ghana beyond aid,” is from the 8th to the 12th of April.

During this week, tax officers are expected to sensitize tax payers to file their personal income tax returns and the company income tax returns, encourage them to file on or before due date, which is by 30th of April 2019.