GIPC LAUNCHES TASK FORCE TO MONITOR ACTIVITIES OF INVESTORS.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), George Aboagye has formally launched a re-constituted national task force for monitoring the activities of foreigners in the trading sector of the economy. Launching the task force yesterday in at the Investment House in Accra the CEO said the action was due to various concerns shared by certain sectors of the business communities in the country especially the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), that some foreign investors operating in the country were flouting the country’s investment laws such as failure to register with the GIPC before instigation of business as stipulated in the GIPC Act 1994 (Act 478).It also claimed that some foreign traders evade the payment of taxes and abuse the country’s employment regulations which states that “every investor such employ at least ten Ghanaians with good salary.”
Mr.Aboagye said the objective of the exercise is to monitor the activities of non-Ghanaian business people operating in the country to ensure that Ghana’s investment regulations are respected and complied with. The expected outcomes of the operation will ensure that foreigners are prevented from engaging in illicit or unapproved investment activities and to channel investment funds into desirable priority areas of investment.
He further stated that task force will be mandated to register and monitor department (RMD) of GIPC to track investors to check on the authenticity of investment, RMD to gather information on investor operations and report anomalies to task forces for redress, task forces to look into cases referred to it and make recommendations on referred cases to relevant agencies. Some participating organizations include ministry of trade and industry, Custom, Exercise and Preventive Service, VAT, Internal Revenue service, Ghana Immigration Service, GUTA, GIPC and SSNIT .The Chairman of the task force is Mr.Pius Addae from GIPC and a representative each from the various participating organizations as members to form the re-constituted national task force.
“The GIPC Act 1994 (Act 478) is being revised to take cognizance of the current economic and investment environment .The draft Act seeks to empower Ghanaians to more active and prominent roles in our economic growth. We believe the new law will help all Ghanaian businesses and especially GUTA.” said Mr.Aboagye.
GIPC was establishing with the mandate to encourage, promote and facilitate investment in all sectors of the Ghanaian economy.

BY: Michael Amedor/Ghanaian Reactor Online