Tema, July 24, GNA - The Tema Metropolitan Office of the Value

Added Tax (VAT) Service, on Thursday sensitized shop owners in Tema on

its operations and urged traders to register with the service. Mr Akwasi Amofa, Principal Revenue Officer of VAT at Tema said

the charging and payment of VAT generate more revenue for the country which

facilitates development. Mr Amofa said revenue from the tax was used to support the

implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the Ghana

Education Trust Fund (GETFund). He stated that as a public and civic responsibility, traders whose

annual turnover exceeded GH¢5,000 must register and charge VAT while

customers must also demand their VAT invoices. The Principal Revenue Officer added that in order to make it easy

for traders to calculate the VAT returns, wholesalers were to charge 15 percent

while retailers charged three percent of the tax on goods and services. He further advised the shop owners to keep records of their

imports; purchases and sales to enable them provide correct information on the

VAT returns forms. The return forms, he said, must be presented to the nearest VAT

office at the end of every month, cautioning that failure to do so after an

additional one month grace period attracted GH¢100 penalty. Mr Amofa gave the assurance that the metropolitan office was

considering opening sub offices in some communities including Ashaiman to

ease the stress that traders from afar go through. Mr Charles Obeng Bawuah, Chairman of the Tema Shop owners

Association appealed to the government to reduce the numerous tax obligations

by shop owners, which according to him affected the prices of their goods. Mr Bawuah noted that due to the high taxation they pay, shop

owners had no option than to increase the prices of goods leading to low sales

as consumers prefer buying from the hawkers who have lower or no tax

obligations. He also appealed to financial institutions to reduce their interest rate

to enable traders borrow and expand their business to help the country to

generate more revenue.