The Volta Regional Minister, Mr Joseph Amenowode, has stressed the need for a concerted action to overcome the challenges of revenue collection in district and municipal assemblies in order to generate more funds for development.
He said district and municipal assemblies must be able to strike a balance in the utilisation of all available resources in order to generate more revenue internally to augment revenue from central government and elsewhere.
Mr Amenowode said this in a speech read on his behalf by the Volta Region Budget Analyst, Mr Bright Konu, at the launch of the assembly’s revenue mobilisation campaign in collaboration with the Social Investment Fund (SIF) at Ho last Thursday.
It was dubbed: “Urban Poverty Reduction Project- Revenue Mobilisation” with focus on conscientising the people in tax and rate payment.
He said it was perceived in some circles that the District Assembly Common Fund had made assemblies lazy in generating local revenue and that several weaknesses had been identified as bottlenecks to effective revenue generation.
Some of them were fraud and abuses, untimely report on revenue collected, lack of updated data on revenue collection, adding that there was need for reward to revenue collectors as an incentive, improvement on service delivery and vigorous education of the people on the need to pay tax and rates.
Mr Amenowode underscored the essence of revenue improvement action plans with assemblymen expected to play crucial roles in the capacity as focal persons in different forms.
The SIF Focal Person for the Volta, Eastern and Greater Accra regions, Mr Justice Akuffo Henaku, said the SIF was ready to assist district assemblies to enhance efficiency in revenue collection.
He said without requisite resources, it would not be possible to raise the living standard of the people, adding that 50 volunteers have been recruited to undertake house –to-house and business-to-business campaigns to educate the public for the next three months.
Mr Henaku advocated for a stronger partnership with the municipal assembly to chart the way forward.
In a welcoming address, the Ho Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Isaac Kotobisah, announced that the assembly would automate its revenue collection with technical assistance from its partners in Canada, the Capital Regional District of Columbia.
He attributed the sorry state of the assembly’s finances to inadequate and untimely releases of supporting funds from central government and donors, the unwillingness of rate payers to honour their tax obligations to the assembly, dishonest and uncommitted revenue collectors, outdated values on immovable properties, inadequate and unreliable data on revenue and sources from low tax cover rate, among others.
Mr Kotobisah said the SIF would assist the municipal assembly to furnish all zonal council offices in the municipality.
The Presiding Member of the assembly, Mr G.H Mensah, said many people did not understand why they should pay tax and that made them to be apprehensive and always on the run.
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