Govt advised to tax shrine and mosque workers

Bishop Godwin Aaron Monyo[/caption] The government has been urged to extend its tax net to cover workers of various shrines and mosques in the country as it is bent on taxing certain church activities and workers. The Presiding Bishop of Christ Healing Hand Ministry, Bishop Godwin Aaron Monyo, who gave the advice, added that workers of shrines and mosques must also be made to contribute to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) for their own benefit in future. The Bishop gave the advice in an interview with Onua News at the Church’s Annual Seven Day Prayer which also marks the 3^rd Anniversary of the Church in Akatsi in the Volta Region. The church which started with 80 people at Teshie Okpogono now has about 3,000 members with 37 branches in the Greater Accra, Central, Eastern and Volta regions. Bishop Monyo explained that people who work at shrines and mosques also become a burden to society when they grow old so it is incumbent on the state to register them and make sure they contribute towards SSNIT for their own benefit. “What we call pay as you earn. Every worker who receives income must pay as he or she earns, so they have to pay”, he explained. He added that “so the churches, the mosques and shrines, those who work there and earn a living must declare income and pay”. “The same as we must pay the social security for all workers so the church must pay those working there and also social security”, he explained. Bishop Monyo added that “it is a matter of asking all churches to register at the Registrar-General Department. Asking all mosques to register at the Registrar-General Department.  Asking all shrines to register at the Registrar-General Department and declare all your workers to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). “The moment all workers are declared to the GRA. GRA has audit department. They can go to the churches, mosques, and shrines to check all those who are working for you.  Let see whether you pay their taxes and SSNIT or not”. Bishop Monyo added that “because these people when they grow old, they become the liability of the state, the state must also go and find out how much they pay for their tax and SSNIT and if we do that, the society will develop”. By Kweku Antwi-Otoo|3news.com|Ghana  ]]>