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bags The Communications Services Tax (CST) which was introduced amidstmuch debate over its appropriateness and burden on the taxpayer hasrecorded more than GH? million in its first month of collection.

  The Large Taxpayer Unit of the Revenue Agencies Governing Board(RAGB), which collects taxes from big companies in the country,collected the bulk of the revenue, totalling GH?.99 million.

  The Executive Secretary of the board, Mr Harry Owusu, said theincoming figures were ample signals that the system would performbeyond expectation.

  Offices of the Value Added Tax (VAT) Service at Osu, Adabraka,Kaneshie, the Spintex Road and Tema also collected marginal amountsthat brought the total figure to GH?.025 million at the end oflast month.

  The government announced the service tax on the use of airtime oncellular phones and other telecommunication services in the 2008Budget which was presented to Parliament last November.

  The tax affects mobile telephony, the Internet, fax and otherinformation and communications technologies in the country and wasintroduced to replace import duties on mobile phones as a measureto check the evasion of duty by importers of mobile phones and,other communications gadgets.

  According to the government, proceeds from the tax, popularlycalled Talk Tax, would be used to support the National YouthEmployment Programme (NYEP).

  On the larger revenue front, domestic revenue collection was ontarget, recording a provisional GH?.692 billion mid-year, asagainst a target of GH?.668 billion, despite the debilitatingimpact of rising crude oil prices on the economy, Mr Owusudisclosed.

  The performance represents 1.4 per cent in excess of actualcollection over the target for the half year and amounts to a 22.3per cent growth in nominal terms over collections during the sameperiod last year and 17.5 per cent if inflation is taken intoconsideration (real terms).

  Mr Owusu said the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS),which is responsible for import duties and other taxes related tothe importation of goods and services, exceeded its target of GH?86.28 million by collecting GH?889.10 million for the half yearending June.

  He said the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which collectspay-as-you earn (PAYE) taxes, corporate taxes and other taxesrelated to income earnings, also exceeded its target by 5.7 percent, having collected GH?549.28 million as against a mid-yeartarget of GH?519.67 million.

  Mr Owusu said the VAT Service, which receives taxes on consumptionon behalf of the country, also collected GH?253.75 million asagainst a half year target of GH?62.51 million.

  "In these times of world economic recession one would have expectedrevenue collections to be worse but the figures show otherwise," hesaid explaining that there had been a significant drop in duties onpetroleum products as a result of the mitigating measures announcedby the government in the second half of the year.

  Mr Owusu stated that contributing to the good performance was theimproved efficiency of the various revenue collecting agencies,saying. "The agencies have become proactive and vigilant in theirareas of work."

  The Executive Secretary of the RAGB said the Revenue ProtectionUnit established within the RAGB had complemented the preventiveefforts of CEPS in intercepting uncustomed goods and cars thatentered the country.

  "The spate of smuggling has reduced and car custom documentation isalso going up," he said.

  Mr Owusu hinted that the RAGB had almost concluded negotiations onthe introduction of point-of-sale devices in VAT-registered shopsand traders for online VAT record taking to replace the electroniccash registers currently in use.

  He said the devices would be piloted in some parts of Accra withintrading outlets which were currently not using any cash registers,adding that once it became fully operational, the new system wouldcompletely phase out every electronic cash register.

  The RAGB boss said the computerisation programme for the InternalRevenue Service was on course with the acquisition of somehardware, while efforts to" procure the software was almostcompleted.

  However the implementation would only affect selected districts inAccra for a start.