Mr Emmanuel Treku, Chamber for Tourism Industry Ghana CEO
The Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber for Tourism Industry Ghana, Emmanuel Treku, has asked the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) to educate players in the hospitality industry on the importance of paying their one percent tax levy, rather than shutting down facilities that have failed to do so in recent times.
The GTA shut down three hospitality centres in the capital last week because they owed over GHC600,000 in taxes.
Tourism and hospitality businesses are required to pay a one percent tourism levy, but the Hill View Hotel, Suma Court Hotel and Tayiba Café, all in Accra, failed to do so despite repeated attempts to persuade them to do so.
In an interview with the media, Mr Treku said while the hospitality industry is struggling to recover and cope with the impact of COVID-19, he they willing to pay all levies imposed on them. However, he requested some type of collaboration and sensitisation from the GTA.
“We are partners in this business. Closing a facility while it is supposed to be a corrective measure to make sure the systems are running is problematic. Shutting down drives customers away, and the Authority wants to go to the same places to collect levies from them.
“So I think this approach should be looked at again. Nobody is saying that they are not willing to pay, but the year just began and everybody is restructuring, so this is something that should be done in a friendly manner so that every business will be sustained, and we can have the tourism industry well sanitised,” he said.
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