Assembly issues ultimatum to tax defaulters

The Kumasi Metropolitan Chief  Executive (MCE),  Mr Kojo Bonsu, has hinted that the assembly will soon wage war on all individuals, companies,  businesses and institutions that refuse to pay their business operating permits, daily tolls and property rates.

The assembly has, therefore, set March 31, 2014 as the deadline for institutions, businesses and individuals to voluntarily pay their taxes to the assembly to avoid being forced to pay or face the law.

Mr Bonsu disclosed this at the maiden public forum organised by the KMA at the Oforikrom sub-metro to interact and seek the views and challenges confronting the people in the sub-metro.

The KMA is organising such a forum to ensure that the people in the metropolis are able to contribute their views and challenges to the KMA to be factored into its planning activities to develop the metropolis.

It would be recalled that last year, the  KMA embarked on similar operations with their task force which led to some institutions such as  Glo, Vodafone and other hotels and hostels being locked for defaulting in their taxes and rates payment.

The MCE urged the various businesses  and institutions to cooperate and support the KMA by voluntarily paying their taxes to enable them to also raise the needed funds to provide projects and other social needs of the people.

Mr Bonsu lamented the regular intervention by some chiefs in the metropolis who came pleading for culprits each time they came face- to- face with the law.

“ I can tell you that the reason for the slow development of the metropolis is due to activities of some chiefs who are doing things which go contrary to the laid down development scheme”, he said.

That, he said, was not only bad but was impeding the progress of the metropolis and appealed to such chiefs in the interest of the development of the city to desist from the act and allow the law breakers to face the law to deter others from wrongdoings.

He appealed to those chiefs to educate their subjects to be of good behaviour since the law would not spare anyone regardless of his religion or political affiliation.

Sanitation

Sanitation was one of the major issues discussed at the forum.

While some provided suggestions on how  the current sanitation challenges could be improved in the metropolis, others felt that the contract of the various waste management institutions should either be abrogated for non-performance or given to others who could do the jobs better.

Road construction

Most chiefs who spoke at the forum talked about one or two roads in their communities.

Other speakers also called on the KMA to redouble its effort at improving road networks in the various residential areas to save them from dust and the difficulty of using the roads.

Extension of electricity to new sites

There were also many contributions from people on the need for electricity to be extended to new sites in their communities since darkness had been identified as one of the causes of  armed robbery in such areas.

The Member of Parliament(MP) for Oforikrom Constituency, Madam Elizabeth Agyemang, in a  solidarity message commended the MCE for organising the  forum to enable the residents to interact with him and to bring their challenges to his attention.

She appealed to the government, as a matter of urgency, to construct an overpass at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) junction to avert the regular knocking down of pedestrians by vehicles.

She also called for the opening of more police stations in the area since the Oforikrom and KNUST police stations alone could not meet the security needs of the people.