Accra (Greater Accra) 14th July 99 ?
The Value Added Tax (VAT) yielded 162.7 billion cedis in the first quarter of the year, Mr Victor Selormey, Deputy Minister of Finance told Parliament on Tuesday.
Giving a breakdown of the collections, Mr Selormey said 52.8 billion cedis was collected in January, 50.4 billion cedis in February, while 59.6 billion cedis was realised in March.
The Deputy Minister, who was answering questions on behalf of the Minister during “question time” in Parliament, said the country was doing better with the new tax system.
Asked to furnish the house with comparable figures for sales tax for the same period last year, Mr Selormey explained that the two tax systems are not comparable.
He said while the sales tax has a narrower level and higher rate of tax, the VAT is broad-based and has a lower tax rate.
The Deputy Minister assured the house, however, that the Ministry would ask the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) to provide information on sales tax collection for the first quarter of last year, and would be made available to the house.
In response to a suggestion that some aspects of the VAT law be reviewed, especially penalties for defaulting in filing VAT returns, the Deputy Minister said it was too early to carry out that exercise.
He said that besides, the Ministry has no intention of doing so now in spite of the ‘thousands of applications’ waiting for a review.
GRi?/
