Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies are empowered by the Local Government Act, 2016, Act 936 to collect revenue within their jurisdiction for the development of the district. In view of this, the Ho West District Assembly held an emergency meeting for Revenue Collectors on Friday 27th August, 2021 to review their activities to ensure improvement of Internally Generated Fund of the Assembly. Sources that generate revenue for the Assembly are obtained through licenses, business taxes, building permits, fees and fines, property rate, market tolls, among others.
The District Coordinating Director, Mr. Wisdom Kporngor noted that the state of revenue mobilization in the district is a worry to the Assembly, therefore the need to engage revenue collectors to restructure the revenue collection approach, discuss challenges faced by the revenue collectors and the way forward in strengthening the financial base. He added that because the IGF is not forthcoming as expected running of the office and undertaking development projects in the district has become very difficult.
According to him, one of the key revenue areas that the Assembly will be tackling is the collection of property rate. He indicated that revenue task force will be deployed into communities for collection.
Some of the challenges outlined were delay in the payment of commission, inadequate logistics to support effective mobilization, weak monitoring and supervision, non-establishment of revenue check points, lack of adequate revenue data, ineffective cooperation, political interference, lack of motivation and non-compliance of tax payers.
Mr. Kporngor indicated that Frandocfil Ventures Limited that are on test trail will be collecting revenue from the sand and stone pit for the Assembly from September to December, 2021 to help the Assembly set revenue targets in those areas.
The District Coordinating Director promised that management will work on the challenges outlined to ensure the effective mobilization of revenue.
He called on role players and stakeholders to help the Assembly in generating the expected revenue.