The Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana has called on the Registrar Generals Department to waive filing fees for Agribusinesses that are struggling in the system, most importantly those whose businesses have dwindled as the results of the Covid-19.
Recently, the Registrar General gave a reminder that the institution would delete companies that fail to file returns on June 30th. Of this development that the CEO of the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana, Anthony Morrison has urged the high office to be considerate towards the agribusinesses.
The Registrar-General, Jemima Oware, speaking on the second virtual forum of the #CitiBusinessFestival on Citi TV last Tuesday said companies that fail to file their returns by the end of June 2021, risk having their names struck out of the list of businesses in Ghana.
She said about 200,000 companies have since 2011 failed to file their annual returns and financial statements despite several notices and reminders. The Registrar said the deletion process will start in July 2021.
“Since 2011 when we introduced the new e-registrar software, I have over 200,000 businesses that have not filed their annual returns basically because some of them think they’ve not done business, COVID-19 has come among others. We gave extensions for people to file annual returns, and we extended it to almost one year, and we allowed businesses to hold Annual General Meetings virtually. We gave all these dispensations, but now the time is up. By the end of June 30, we are going to start another round of penalties,” she said.
Speaking on Business Focus on TV3, Anthony Morrison, the CEO of the Chamber of Agribusiness Ghana urged the Registrar General to be considerate of the agribusinesses that have flouted to file their returns.
He bemoaned that the economic situation coupling with the pandemic has made it difficult for agribusinesses to thrive. He called on the Registrar General to waive the filing fees for the struggling agribusinesses so they could be able to sustain their operation in this hard time.
