Accra, Dec. 20, GNA - The VAT Service on Thursday succeeded in retrieving one million Ghana cedis (10 billion cedis) out of 21 million cedis (211 billion cedis) owed by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) as VAT returns accumulated from 2001 to date.

According to Mr. Maxwell Tsatsu, Head of Enforcement and Debt Management Unit, VAT Service said the ECG had refused to settle its debt accrued from VAT on industrial consumption of electricity despite various attempts to have them to pay.

He said the Service therefore, embarked on a distress action as the last resort to recover the debt, adding that the management of the ECG had pledged that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and the Ministry of Energy would go into negotiations to settle the rest of the debt by the end of the year.

He said the debt owed the Service by the ECG was the highest among its debtors and promised that the Service would make frantic efforts to achieve its target of collecting 4.5 trillion cedis by the end of the year. However management of ECG declined to comment on the issue.