GTA enforces payment of tourism levy
The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has begun an exercise to ensure the payment of a mandatory one per cent tourism levy by operators in the industry to the authority.
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The levy is a one-per cent extra charge on goods and services provided at tourism facilities and serves as a source of funding for the Tourism Development Fund (TDF).
It was established in 2011 under the Tourism Act 817, to provide additional resource to augment the annual budget allocation for the development of the tourism industry.
It became fully operational in October 2012.
The exercise, which is being undertaken under the authority of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, is, therefore, to ensure that the levy collected by the tourism establishments are paid to the GTA and those who have not enforced it yet do so in accordance with the Act.
At a press briefing prior to the exercise, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the GTA, Mr Akunu Dake, said the tourism industry had become very competitive and demanding.
He said it required improvement of services and conditions to ensure that products and services in the industry were marketable and attractive enough.
Mr Dake said the GTA had designated accounts at the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), uniBank and the Universal Merchant Bank (UMB), where the operators of tourism establishments were to remit the levy.
Through the exercise, it was discovered that KFC, Osu and the Afrikiko restaurant had not paid anything to the GTA since the fund started operating in 2012.
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They were given a one-week grace period to settle their debts and pay all the penalties that had accrued over the period.
Task force
Mr Dake hinted that after the exercise, a task force would be deployed to enforce payment of the levy throughout the country.
He explained that the objective was to ensure that those obliging the directive paid the right amounts while those who did not, made good their indebtedness, as well as paid the accruing interests and the resulting penalties.
Visits
As part of the exercise, the GTA visited four facilities in Accra that had been paying the levy since its inception.
They were Papaye Fast Foods, Best Western Premier Hotel, Airport View Hotel and Movenpik Ambassador Hotel, that had paid GH¢339, 952, GH¢28,160, GH¢19,000 and GH¢2,334,912 respectively.
The General Manager of Movenpik Hotel, Mr Hauser Axle, said the facility paid the levy regularly and on time because it knew how important the tourism industry was.
He said if the tourism industry developed further, it would attract more tourists and investors into the country and that would boost their operations.
“We are very cautious to pay the levies on time to enhance development of the industry. We will continue to ensure that we are committed to its payment in accordance with the law,” he said.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Airport View Hotel, Mr Francis Dwumah, explained that the hotel’s payment of the levy had been low because it had not been in full operation for a year and a half, due to ongoing construction work.
He said the power crisis was also a hindrance because the hotel spent about GH¢2,500 daily on diesel during power outages.
Mr Dwumah stated, however, that the hotel started full operations a month ago and would settle all arrears and lauded the GTA and the government for such an initiative, which he said would help develop the tourism industry further.