Takoradi, May 22,-GNA-The Value Added Tax (VAT) Secretariat on Monday began a five-day distress debt collection exercise involving a total of more than 17.1 billion cedis from 16 institutions in the Western Region. Thirteen of them described by Mr. Samuel Kofi Otabil, Region Head of the Local VAT Office as "recalcitrant and delinquent" debtors are in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis, while the rest are in the Bibiani and Sefwi areas.

These institutions include timber and wood processing companies, manufacturers, service providers, wholesalers and traders. They owe the VAT Secretariat between 2.6 million cedis and 10 billion cedis within a period of one month and two years, Mr. Otabil said.

The VAT Commissioner is empowered under sections 31 and 34 of the VAT Act to apply extreme debt recovery means that include the seizure of property for sale after the issuance of final demand notice to debtors. Mr. Henry Branford Sam, Debt Management Supervisor led a team that included policemen to seal off the Western Veneer and Lumber Company (WVLC) a timber and wood processing company at Sekondi. This was after it had been issued with warrant of distress notice and inventory of office equipment, vehicles and other items had been taken. WVLC is indebted to VAT to the tune of more than 10.2 billion cedis and this had been outstanding since 2000.

The offices were locked and the workers were asked to leave the premises while the factory, which was in production when the team arrived was ordered to shut down all machines by 1400 hours. The exercise would end on Friday.