Dormaa West Assembly educates citizens on tax obligations
The Dormaa West District Assembly in the Brong Ahafo Region has organised a town hall meeting with a call on Ghanaians to honour their tax obligations since district assemblies cannot rely solely on the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) to meet their development challenges.
The District Chief Executive (DCE) of the area, Madam Mary Ameyaa, who made the appeal at Nkrankwanta, said the assembly was under stress since it had been compelled to rely mainly on its share of the DACF since the people were reluctant in paying their taxes to raise enough revenue internally to support the funding of projects.
That, according to her, had brought some of the projects to a standstill. He, therefore, called on the people to be active citizens by freely honouring their tax obligations.
Madam Ameyaa said the assembly had intensified its tax education to help increase citizens’ understanding of the need to pay taxes and expressed the hope that the people would heed to the call before a tougher method was adopted.
Town hall meeting
The meeting, which was organised by the Information Services Department (ISD), in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (LGRD), was aimed at bringing governance closer to the citizenry through open interaction among ministers, parliamentarians, opinion leaders and the general public.
The meeting also created a platform for members of the community to raise their concerns and discuss issues hampering development in their various communities.
It also allowed government officials, politicians and other stakeholders to explain some government projects, policies and programmes to the citizens.
Addressing the durbar, Madam Ameyaa said the assembly had distributed 5,000 palm seedlings to farmers as part of the government’s major flagship programmes.
Abandoned projects
The District Planning Officer, Mr Bismarck Kyere Asante, who took the participants through some of the assembly projects, expressed concern about abandoned Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) projects and cocoa roads at the area.