Simon Osei Mensah, the Ashanti Regional Minister is set to hold a meeting with shop owners in Adum in Kumasi today.
This meeting is to address the ongoing protests by the business leaders due to the struggling economy.
The traders in Adum have since Monday closed their shops, while others in areas such as Bantama have replicated the action.
Some businesses in Kumasi have not been operating for the past three days in protest of the uneven implementation of the Value Added Tax.
Henry Nana Boakye, the National Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has recently criticized the modus operandi of the Ghana Revenue Authority in the region.
According to him, the stationing of officers from the GRA at the entrance of the shops is counter-productive.
He argued that the strategy would have been justified only if it was targeted at businesses that ample evidence shows have been evading or under-declaring their taxes.
The NPP National Organiser in a statement said the “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.
In his view, the Public Relations unit of GRA is dead.
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