The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has begun a nationwide enforcement exercise to clampdown on hospitality facilities over their refusal to pay the statutory Tourism Levy.
The 1% levy which is guaranteed under Legislative Instruments (LI) 2238 and 2239 is charged on bills as one patronises hospitality related enterprises such as hotels, clubs, guest houses, lodges, hostels, etc. with the money paid into the Tourism Development Fund.
The exercise started a while ago and so far has covered the Western and Ashanti Regions. At the beginning of the Greater Accra Regional exercise today, officials from GTA, the media and the Ghana Police Service visited some facilities including, Oak Plaza Hotel, MJ Grand Hotel, Enda Foods and Country Kitchen. Country Kitchen was closed down over non-payment of GHC8,232.
Checks at the rest revealed that either payments were being made at the time of visit or had been made a little earlier with some issuing cheques on the spot. Deputy CEO in Charge of Operations at GTA, Ekow Sampson who led the team said the exercise was also to check standards of the hotel as required by the Authority.
In this regard however, he said the most of the facilities were in good standing. “We are not just looking at the payment of the 1% Tourism Levy, but we are also looking at the quality standards. When we went round, we saw that the standards of the hotel, the quality and everything is perfect but they were owing,” he explained.
According to him, over 50 facilities are expected to be visited in the weeklong operation.
Money from the levy is contributed to the Tourism Development Fund, which according to GTA, had accumulated over GHC39 million as of December 2017.
By: Samuel Obeng Appah
