The report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Finance and Communications on the Communications Services Tax Bill was laid before the House for consideration. The objective of the bill is to impose a communications tax on communication service usage charged to consumers by the communication service providers who are licensed by the National Communications Authority (NCA). The bill was laid before the House on February 20, 2008 and referred to the committee for consideration and report. The tax forms part of efforts by the government to widen the tax net in order to increase revenue. In the report jointly signed by the chairmen of the Finance and Communications committees of the House, Nii Daku Adu Mante and Kojo Armah respectively, members of the joint committee expressed the need for the establishment of an effective mechanism to monitor the systems of communication service providers in order to track down their actual revenues for the purpose of applying the tax. According to the report, though members of the Minority on the committee actively participated in the consideration of the bill, they expressed their opposition in principle to the imposition of the service tax. The committee, however, recommended to the House to adopt the report and pass the bill subject to amendments proposed. The stage is now set for a heated debate on the bill between the Majority members who are expected to argue in favour of the bill and the Minority members who have already indicated their opposition to the bill. Source: Daily Graphic