Ghanaians must honour tax obligations — NCCE

The Kadjebi District Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Daniel Agbesi Latsu, has appealed to Ghanaians to honour their tax obligations for the government to generate enough revenue to develop the country.

Apart from taxes being vital to national development, he said it was a civic duty and constitutional obligation to pay taxes.

Mr Latsu explained that the country’s tax population stood at only 1.2 million out of the 28 million estimated population even though a lot of eligible tax-paying Ghanaians operated in the informal sector.

Constitutional duty

Mr Latsu said the NCCE saw that as a contravention of Article 41 (j) of the 1992 Constitution, which enjoined every citizen “to declare his or her income honestly to the appropriate and lawful agencies and to satisfy all tax obligations”.

He made these statements at a tax compliance programme at the Ahamansu Market in the Kadjebi District in the Oti Region.

The programme was meant to raise awareness of the need to pay taxes, thus enhancing the internally generated funds of the Kadjebi District and Ghana as a whole.

The NCCE is undertaking the exercise in partnership with the Kadjebi District Assembly, Network Of Communities In Development (NOCID), a Kadjebi-based non-governmental organisation, and the Information Services Department (ISD), and funded by ActionAid Ghana.

He said taxes helped the government create jobs and provide social amenities such as roads, electricity, hospitals, potable water, schools, markets, among others.

The Coordinator of NOCID, Madam Agnes Obour, said every little tax helped in building the nation, hence the need for everyone to pay tax.

Fairness and transparency

Madam Obour said inasmuch as they owed it a duty to pay taxes, they also had a right to claim a refund of taxes overpaid, right to courtesy and consideration, fairness and transparency, independent appeal and review, among others.

The Kadjebi District acting Information Officer, Mr Al-Adams El-Alpha, said taxes served as a means of protection for local industries, redistribution of income to bridge inequality, control of inflation, payment of salaries for all public servants and other considerations.

Mr Al-Adams, therefore, called on traders to pay their taxes for the government to meet those demands.

Similar programmes were held at Poase-Cement market, Kadjebi, Dapaa, Dodo-Amanfrom, Pampawie, Wawaso, Asato, Dodo-Tamale, Obuasi and other locations.