Pay taxes to support development - EOCO boss to businesses
The Executive Director of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), Commissioner of Police (COP) Maame Yaa Tiwa Addo- Danquah, has encouraged business owners to pay taxes as their civic responsibility towards the country’s socio-economic development.
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She said the filing of their annual returns and the payment of appropriate taxes would help the state raise the needed resources to fund the various socio-economic projects in the country.
“The point is, other countries have made it because of taxes and we should also do it.
We should not always be concealing things from the tax man so that whatever we have to pay, we pay that,” she said at a gathering in Techiman, the Bono East capital last Friday.
She was addressing a gathering at an event to inaugurate the Bono East Regional office of EOCO in Techiman.
The Bono East Office sited at Twimia Nkwanta, Techiman, was made operational in 2020 with one desk officer and support from the Sunyani office.
Now, the new regional office has been complemented with a regional director of EOCO as well as eight additional officers.
The new office is intended to help EOCO to prevent and detect organised crimes as well as facilitate the confiscation of the proceeds of crime.
Present at the inauguration were the Municipal Chief Executive of the Techiman Municipal Assembly, Benjamin Yaw Gyarko; the Techiman Office Manager of GRA, Charles Boasiako Antwi, and the Regional Budget Analyst, Peter Owusu, who sat in for the regional minister.
Also present were the Municipal Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Emmanuel Ofori Regional Commander of NIB, Augustine Ofori; and some selected Techiman-based businessmen and women.
Taxes necessary
COP Addo- Danquah said taxes were essential for the day-to-day running of the state and as such the business community must pay their quota to enable the government to undertake projects.
“I encourage the business community to know that we are obligated to pay our taxes.
Let us always remember that little drops of taxes make a mighty nation.
“You should also remember that you as a businessman cannot construct your own road, you cannot build your own hospitals, and you cannot construct your own terminal or anything.
“It is the taxes that government gets that it uses to provide all these amenities for all of us.
So we must ensure that we pay what we are obligated to pay and we should not hide anything from the tax man and we should be good citizens of the nation,” she added.
Regional mandate of EOCO
The EOCO boss further said the new office would enhance security and fight against economic, financial and other serious offences in Bono East Region, which is a busy commercial area.
Also, it would facilitate the office’s efforts to carry out its mandate in a decentralised manner.
“Most of the time, the Auditor General comes out with a report indicating that millions of Ghana cedis have been lost to the state.
“EOCO, backed by its mandate, takes the report of every region and investigates them,” indicating that in 2022, the Bono East Office was able to make some recoveries from the proceeds of crimes.
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She thus called for full collaboration from all partner agencies in the region in order for EOCO to fulfil its mandate.
The Twimiahene & Sannahene of Techiman, Nana Ankomah Frimpong, who chaired the function, commended the EOCO for prioritising setting up an office in the region, saying it was important to help curb economic and financial crimes in Techiman.