The Chartered Institute of Taxation, Ghana (CITG), has been called upon to devise schemes to train more tax professionals to advice on increased revenue generation and collection for the country. Growing the institute in terms of numbers would beef up the economy with highly skilled labour to aid revenue generation to ultimately wean the nation from donor support. The call was made by Alex Tettey-Enyo, Minister of Education, at the launch of the week-long Annual Tax celebration of the CITG in Accra. The celebration is under the theme: "Encouraging Investment in Ghana: The Need for Tax Policy Review." The minister said, although the institute had trained many professionals, there still remains a deficit in tax professionals across the length and breadth of the country. He advised the CITG to put in place policies for continuous professional education as well as a scheme to monitor whether members were conversant with modern trends in taxation. Mr. Tettey-Enyo reiterated government's interest in enhancing tax education in the country to help achieve development plans to build a better Ghana. He said through tax education, people would understand taxation and contribute effectively to develop the nation. The Commissioner General of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), George Blankson, said the modern approach to taxation was tax harvesting where tax authorities cultivate tax payers to contribute to national development. He said the tax authorities should have procedures that would make tax payers aware, and comply with the rules that would feed into flow of information from tax payers to collectors. The CITG president, Yaw Asante-Boadi, said the celebration would create the platform for professionals, business community, revenue agencies and the government to discuss ways of improving revenue generation and mobilisation. A total of GH¢4,236,736 Cocoa Akuafo cheques last year as compared to GH0 644,659 purchased in 2008. He indicated that a number of training programmes were undertaken in 2009 to ensure that customers continued to enjoy improved service delivery. "We are committed to employing and retaining outstanding members of staff. Management has been tasked to institute performance based compensation programs to reward outstanding members of staff." On social responsibility, Mr Adom Asomaning said, the bank continued to offer support to the needy in the society, adding that, a total amount of GH¢12,511.00 was spent on various intervention initiatives at Akyem Osino, including GH¢10,000.00 to the Agricultural University College at Bunso. He said in anticipation of increasing competition in the banking industry, management successfully negotiated a competitive loan of GH¢500,000.00 at very good terms from SPEED Ghana Limited for on-lending to their increasing customers. Source: Daily Guide