Wa, Jan. 18, GNA - The Wa sector collection of Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) collected a total of 1.8 billion cedis as revenue between January and December 2004 to exceed their revenue target of 500 million cedis for the year.

The figure indicates that the sector exceeded their target by 260 per cent as compared to about 65 per cent in 2003.

Mr. Yao Dela Tchorly, Wa Sector Commander of CEPS, who disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Wa on Tuesday said Wa station, which had a target of 75 million collected 649 million cedis to exceed their target while Hamile station, which had 180 million as its target also collected 526 million cedis to place second.

He said Tumu station, which had a target of 150 million, also exceeded it by collecting 209 million cedis to place third with Bole collecting 79 million cedis.

The Sector Commander said Lawra station could however, not reach their target of 20 million cedis as they only managed 9.3 million cedis.

Mr. Tchorly attributed their success to the high level of co-operation between them and the Ghana Police Service in the region. He said due to the co-operation, the Police were vigilant and arresting motorists who were sent to CEPS for registration under their import duties components.

The Sector Commander commended the Ghana Police Service and other agencies for their co-operation and promised to continue to link up with them for better results.

Mr. Tchorly however, appealed to the government to consider providing them with cross-country vehicles, communication equipment and good road networks to facilitate their movement and enable them to reduce the high rate of smuggling.

He also appealed for more staff to strengthen their skeletal staffing situation in the sector to step up revenue generation. In a related development, thieves tied up the watchmen of CEPS and Internal Revenue Service and broke into their offices.

They were however, disappointed when they could not find enough money after breaking their safes.

They however, went away with about 780,000 cedis, curtains and some provisions.