Ghana: Today, the Ashanti Regional Minister will meet with protesting shop owners in Kumasi.

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, is scheduled to meet with shop owners in Adum, Kumasi, today.

This meeting will address the ongoing protests by business leaders over the state of the economy.

Since Monday, Adum traders have closed their doors, while others in areas such as Bantama have followed suit.

Some Kumasi businesses have been closed for three days in protest of the uneven implementation of the Value Added Tax.

The National Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye, recently criticized the Ghana Revenue Authority’s (GRA) operations in the region.

According to him, stationing GRA officers at the entrance to the shops is counter-productive.

He contended that the strategy would have been justified only if it had targeted businesses that had been found to be evading or under-declaring their taxes.

According to a statement issued by the NPP National Organiser,

“widespread approach of stationing revenue officers at businesses is counterproductive, oppressive, repressive, and suppressive.”

“We are not in normal times – businesses and individuals are bearing the brunt of the twin global crisis and their concomitant economic agony – and the least expected from GRA is to police traders whom no tax evasion findings have been made against.”

“In this day of technology, GRA should adopt welcoming and pleasant ways of revenue collection strategy that engenders revenue assurance. This strategy is weak and lame since Revenue Officers stationed at these shops and businesses can be compromised to aid owners to evade or under-declare their taxes. GRA should rather strive to reduce human contact in revenue collection and employ technological solutions to take taxes from businesses,” he added.

GRA’s Public Relations unit, in his opinion, is extinct.

For more information always visit dailygam.com