The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has recognised and appreciated Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL) with a certificate for being the best company in tax payment and compliance at the Taxpayer Service Centre in Takoradi, Western Region.
According to GRA, the award’s purpose is to motivate other companies and individuals to file their tax returns.
“This certificate enhances your corporate image. You have been very loyal and consistent over the years, and we say ‘congratulations, we recognise your effort’,” Takoradi Area Director-GRA, Joseph Boateng, said at a brief ceremony in Takoradi.
“This programme is not limited to only Takoradi; from here, other selected taxpayers will be recognised. The grand event is coming up in October at Accra; it is a three-stage selection process, and it is my prayer that at the end of the day a taxpayer from Takoradi will emerge as overall best tax payer in Ghana,” he added.
He reminded all income-earning individuals, including the self-employed, to file their returns by the end of each month as well as file their annual returns of income at end of the year and submit them at GRA offices throughout the country.
Joseph Appiah, Financial Controller-Ghana Rubber Estates Limited, thanked GRA for the recognition, saying: “We have received these awards on a few occasions”.
“As a corporate body, we discharge all our responsibilities – not only the ones which are mandatory but even those ones that are conventional, yet we fail to get any protection for our investments,” said Mr. Appiah – lamenting that recently some of the company’s immature 30,000 trees plantation was cut down, costing thousands of euros.
“We have galamsey pits right in the middle of our plantation; what is being done about it? What hurts even more is that we have people exporting raw rubber which we can process to make more money and pay taxes. We went to the presidency level about four years ago, but nothing has been done about it to protect our plantation,” he noted while expressing his grievances.
“The irony is that the state is a shareholder; it owns 26.75 percent shares. Last year, we paid €700,000 as a dividend to government. This year we paid three times more than that. Such investment should be protected. Although we have received an award for our contribution toward tax, if we are able to process more rubber without any hindrances then we will be able to contribute more – and maybe even win an award at the national level,” he stated.
