Bawku (U/E), Feb. 16, GNA - A tax education forum for stakeholders in the Bawku municipality has been held at Bawku with an appeal for them to step up education campaigns to increase the revenue mobilization base of the country.

Among the stakeholders were officials from the Customs, Excise and Preventive Services (CEPS), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), zonal councillors, traditional rulers, assembly members and heads of decentralized departments.

The forum preceded the formal launch of the tax education week by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) to sensitize the public to fulfil their tax obligations to the state.

Mr. Abdul-Rahman Gumah, the Bawku Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), appealed to the revenue collecting bodies to adopt appropriate systems to make paying tax attractive to the public.

He said there was the need for individuals and entities to honour their tax obligations to the state to enable the government to raise resources.

Mr Gumah said but for tax evasion by some unscrupulous and unpatriotic citizens, the government could have developed the country at a faster rate.

He appealed to revenue collecting bodies to formulate mechanisms that would discourage people from evading tax.

An official of CEPS Mr. A.K. Debrah, said tax obligation was not for only revenue collecting bodies but also everyone's concern and stressed the need for collective efforts to intensify tax education. An IRS official, Mr. Kwaduo Okra-Darko, said loans and grants from abroad were taxes from their citizens and said these countries could not continue to do so for us forever.

The Bawku Municipal Director of NCCE, Mr. Baba Apaabey, said the current political, socio-economic and cultural realities of the nation's existence call for redoubling of efforts to increase tax earnings.