The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), has issued a three-day ultimatum to advertisers who have failed to pay levies they owe the Assembly for mounting billboards within the metropolis.
The Assembly says advertisers who refuse to pay the levies will be punished in accordance with law.
[contextly_sidebar id=”kpdjCWRsy7oXZLKq7uK9KTXXAejlio3x”]The Chairman of the Revenue Sub-committee of AMA, Robert Kwame Dadzie, who spoke to the media after a tour of some advertising companies within the metropolis, said the advertisers have for the past 8 months failed to make the mandatory payments to the AMA.
“We’ve been chasing them for more than eight months now. This company, for example, owes us GH¢163,682.24 from 2016. If you add this year’s to it, it makes it 210,818.24, and this woman couldn’t pay a pesewa. When I called her last week to come and pay up because we’re in the last quarter of the year, you should have seen how she dealt with me; she spoke to me like I was a small boy,” he said.
“By Friday, if they fail to pay our money to us, Saturday and Sunday, we’ll bring every billboard down because once we make the place ready for you to do your advert and take your money, it is your responsibility to come and pay us. So if you fail to pay us, then we have every obligation to take action against you,” he added.
Robert Dadzie said he had given the defaulters enough time to pay the debt, but they are yet to do so hence the threat.
“Before we do things like this, we call all the clients in the system. Two months ago, I began this operation; I made sure to call everybody to come and pay. So, I am sending a signal to them … at the end of this week, on Friday, they will see us coming, and there should be no excuse; no one can stop us,” he said.
Advertisers who mount billboards within the metropolis are expected to pay a levy to the Assembly for putting up the structure after obtaining a permit.
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By: Akosua Ofewaa Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana