Agona Swedru (Central Region), 16, Oct. '98 The government has no intention to arbitrarily increase the 10 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) approved by Parliament.

Mr Habibu Mohammed of the Central Regional VAT Secretariat gave the assurance at Agona Swedru on Thursday in an answer to a question at a public forum, organised by the Agona District VAT Education Committee at the main Swedru Lorry Park , to enlighten the people on the new tax system.

He explained that the increase or otherwise of VAT would be determined by the economic circumstances the nation may go through after the system has been put into practice for sometime.

The government may even reduce the percentage from 10 to five to give the people more relief in the course of time, depending on the results.

Mr Isaac Quainoo, a member of the regional VAT team announced that the government has put out a mechanism, under which five per cent out of the 15 per cent sales tax already paid to the state by registered service providers in respect of their goods still in stock will be refunded to them. GRi