Information Services Staff Prepared For E-Levy Sensitisation

Listen to this article Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Ministry of Information has held a seminar to sensitise staff of the Information Services Department (ISD) in the Ashanti Region to the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy).

The programme is aimed at empowering the ISD officers to embark on public educational campaigns to sensitise Ghanaians to the importance of the levy.

It was facilitated and sponsored by the Ghana Revenue Authority, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance.

E-Levy campaign

Addressing the seminar in Kumasi yesterday, a Deputy Minister of Information, Fatimatu Abubakar, said just as the ISD had done with other sensitisation campaigns, the government expected that it would devote much attention and resources to the E-Levy campaign and help get the message down to the citizenry in rural communities.

“Our expectation is that after this exercise, many Ghanaians will understand the essence of contributing to the E-Levy, and as such revenue mobilisation for development to benefit all,” she added.

Ms Abubakar advised the officers to make good use of the opportunity and not disappoint the Ministry of Information and the government.

Challenge ISD

The Deputy Minister of Information also charged state agencies to partner the ISD and give the information agency more opportunities to serve, especially on public awareness campaigns, since the department had the capacity to get messages to the ground convincingly.

“The ISD has the capacity to get messages to the ground convincingly through its numerous campaigns. It is the reason we need to give it more,” Ms Abubakar said.

Boosting revenue

A Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei Asare, stressed the importance of the E-Levy, saying the government hoped to use the levy to boost revenue generation for development.

“It will help us broaden the tax base to include a large portion of the population who are eligible to pay taxes,” Ms Asare, who is also the Member of Parliament for Atiwa East, said.

The acting Director of the ISD, David Owusu-Amoah, charged his officers to take the task as a test case to deliver and get the message to the people in the appropriate languages.

By: graphiconline.com